Thread Plague

by Waki Paki

There are worse fates than reincarnation. There are worse villages to be born in than Takigakure. There are worse specializations for a ninja than medicine. But once you have mastered the Jiongu, anything is possible. Ito Ikimono knows the horrifying power such a technique can grant, and he'll shed whatever he needs to take it; Sweat, blood, even skin. OC, Fu, Takigakure, Jiongu.

12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

You know, Takigakure is a decent village. It's a bit low-tech for the setting, relatively small as well, but I'd go so far as to call it idyllic-looking. Between the lake, the giant tree, the lush landscape all around, the simple buildings, and the lack of pollution; it's a beautiful place. Maybe I'm a bit biased, having grown up there, but I think anyone would be able to appreciate the view.

Konoha, however… this place was a sight.

The massive walls greeted us first, visible as it was through the forest surrounding it. When we got closer, through the open gates was the Hokage monument, standing imposing in the distance. It got even better as we walked inside after speaking to the gate guards; the many colors of the buildings, the hustle and bustle of the many citizens in varying styles, but perhaps it was the sheer massive size that struck me the most… this place was a metropolis, and no mistake. I mean, I'd seen the place in animation and drawings more times than I could remember, but you can never beat the real thing. Perhaps I was enjoying the feeling of being among modern civilization again.

I had more control of my reaction, but Fu and Torio were looking around like country bumpkins to varying degrees of excitement. Fu was practically bouncing as we walked, and it made me smile. She turned and gave me a meaningful look, which I returned. She clearly wanted the nickel tour, and I'd be happy to oblige, but that would depend on whether Torio tagged along.

We arrived around mid-afternoon, two days before the first exam, and Norinaga led us to our hotel. Decently furnished, and it had a decent view on the third floor. Fu claimed the room right next to mine.

"Alright team," the man began, "I'm going to go submit our forms. The other Taki teams should be arriving tomorrow. You've been briefed on how to conduct yourselves, so I won't belabor the point. Just go out, familiarize yourselves with the city, and see if you can't scope out the competition. Meet back here no later than midnight. Understood?"

"Yes Norinaga," we chorused. After our first c-rank, Norinaga had done away with honorifics between us.

He nodded, then departed.

Fu gave me her puppy eyes, and I chuckled. "Fu, do you want to go check out the city with me?"

"Yes!"

Though I wanted to just go, we were a proper team now, and I didn't want to snub our other teammate. "Torio, want to come with?"

Fortunately, she shook her head. "I want to relax first. Maybe I'll go shopping later or something."

So we gave her a wave and were soon out on the streets.

"So, what do you want to see first?" I asked her.

Cue stomach growl. "How about some food?" she sheepishly suggested.

"I think I know just the place," I replied with a sly smile.

Fu's amber eyes widened. [The ramen place that Naruto likes?] she questioned in Taki sign language, to which I nodded. She grinned.

Navigating the streets between all of the citizens made the journey more difficult than I'd anticipated. Hell, there were never this many people on the streets in Taki. Between them, trying to get my bearings, and pulling up my old memories of whatever specifics surrounded Ichiraku Ramen, it took us about 30 minutes to get to it about 6 blocks over by the edge of one of the residential districts. By the time we arrived, I was a bit agitated from having my senses overworked by the cacophony of noise that was generated by a metropolitan city. Still, it was worth it when I saw that iconic little shop and white curtains.

Given the location and time, it wasn't surprising that the place was empty when we arrived. We pushed through the drapes and sat down at the counter. The older man had his back to us, but gave a greeting. "Hello, welcome to Ichiraku Ramen! Be with you in just a second." He finished stirring the pot and turned to us, showing no reaction to our foreign headbands. "Good afternoon, ninja-sans. What can I get you?"

"I'd love 2 bowls of miso ramen!" my friend declared.

"Chicken, please, if you have it."

"Comin' right up!" He turned. "Ayame! Get some more miso from the back, we're almost out!"

"Yes, dad!"

He started humming as he made our food. "So, what brings you here, ninja-sans?"

I gave Fu a sideways look and she grinned. "Well," I said, "I have it on good authority that this is the best ramen place in the world, so we had to stop by and try it."

Teuchi looked a bit thrown by that, as did Ayame who just walked through the door, but they laughed. "Who told you that? Wait, I don't need to ask. Naruto-kun, right?" Ayame asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe? I didn't get his name, I just overheard him. Yellow hair, strong lungs, kind of short?"

Teuchi chuckled. "That's Naruto-kun alright. But anyway, I meant here to Konoha. I suppose you're here for the chunin exam?"

The tanned girl nodded vigorously. "That's right! And I wanted to see the city. Konoha is huge compared to Taki, and it's so cool!"

"Most beautiful city in the world," the man informed us with a smile. "But then I've never been to Taki, how's that?"

My eager friend launched into a detailed description of Taki, which I occasionally chimed in on. Soon enough, our food was ready and conversation stopped as we dug in.

And damned if it wasn't delicious. Granted, I'd only had instant ramen before, but this was absolutely fantastic. Maybe the secret ingredient is love. I almost inhaled my broth when I laughed at the thought. Fu clearly thought much the same, and we tore through it fairly quickly. I bought a pork bowl and she got two vegetable ones.

It was a nice, quiet place. The main streets were far enough away that you didn't get much of the noise from the busy areas, just the nice ambience of Teuchi and Ayame going about their work. I could definitely see why Naruto liked the place, even discounting the fact that the Ichirakus were damned decent people. Out of all the horrible and flawed people in the elemental nations, these two were just kind and simple folk trying to live their life.

We took our second round much slower, enjoying this for a while, but couldn't sit around in the ramen booth all day if we wanted to see the sights. So we pushed our empty bowls back, which were quickly swiped by the man. When the bill came, I gave him ten times what it cost and we left before he turned back around. Fu smiled at that. I had plenty of money, so being generous came easily to the people who deserved it.

"So, where to next?" I asked her.

We took a stroll all around the village, me signing the more plot-relevant places to her, and just generally enjoying our time out and about. We swung by a bookstore and I picked up a couple cookbooks. While I was tempted to buy one of everything I didn't recognize so I could add it to the library, it would look very odd for a foreign genin to do so. Oh well, I could always mail in an order or something later. Fu picked up a book on entomology on a whim, perhaps at the behest of Chomei. It was authored by an Aburame, which was very intriguing, and she promised to let me make a copy of it later.

The next day was pretty similar, except Torio came with and we met up with team Guy. We'd coordinated it over the letters Fu sent to them, and so they gave us another tour of the city with some of their favorite highlights, including their training ground. Lee got over excited and had to be forcefully reminded to take it easy today since they were testing tomorrow. Neji declared it was fate that they, and specifically he, would prevail. Tenten gave a long-suffering sigh and got the tour moving again. We thankfully avoided the scene between team 7 and the Suna team, though I wasn't entirely sure when that was supposed to happen anyhow.

Finally, it was exam day. In the morning, Norinaga got us together. "You're all trained for this, I have faith in you. Go in there and make people remember why Taki isn't to be taken lightly."

"Yes, Norinaga."

We arrived at the building in short order, Fu up front and Torio and I trailing on either side of her. We went up the stairs and spotted a crowd of genin around two ninjas standing in front of the room marked 301. Torio eyed the group. Fu turned and looked at us. She subtly signed and pointed at the stairs we just came up, then the door. Torio's eyes widened and she nodded, as did I. Fu was our leader in the group, so the older kunoichi would take her lead.

We casually walked behind the group, spotting team Guy as we did. I made eye contact with Tenten and raised an eyebrow, eyes flicking over to Lee and the door. She gave a surreptitious wink that Fu caught, which was answered by a slight nod. We knew team Guy well enough to know they wouldn't have been fooled, disregarding the metaknowledge. So we continued on our way and only got some confused looks from a few of the ninjas in the back.

So we made our way into the larger testing room 301, jam packed with loads of genin hopefuls aiming to make their way up the ranks. Mean looking buggers, many of them. Some looked like they were nearly 25, others were just about our age, but most sat around 16 or 17 years old. Fu led us to a clear spot and we settled in for a wait, scanning the competition. I had my eyes scanning for a particular person, but I couldn't spot him. At least, until I saw a single head of blond in the crowd of genin, right next to a head of short pink, a few rows ahead of us.

Naruto didn't make an entrance. That was what struck me as I took in his appearance. The room was full of muted tans, browns, blacks, blues and other such colors for people's clothing. Naruto, Sakura, and a pale kid with black hair that I pegged as Sai were dressed similarly to the rest of the genin here. If it hadn't been for the hair, I wouldn't have spotted them from behind. Actually, the thought gave me a slight chuckle, seeing this crowd of dark brown and black hair colors. Something as simple as different hair colors made them stand out. I kept myself from bursting out with a laugh when I considered that the only powerful ninja with brown hair I could think of was the third Hokage, everyone else had something exotic or at least black. I ran a thankful hand through my own black locks and was suddenly quite aware of how different my and Fu's outfits were to the other genin.

My thoughts refocused on the matter at hand. Naruto, Sakura, and Sai were here and they had quietly gotten themselves seated without making a scene. I spotted the silver head of Kabuto over by the door and realized he hadn't plied them with his information cards either, which was slightly concerning. Perhaps they'd just been Kabuto's way of getting Sasuke's attention and interest in the canon? Either way, team 7 was just sitting there until they were approached by the other rookie teams and started talking. With my enhanced senses, I was able to pick up their conversation.

Some were extending greetings and generally making small talk, with Naruto giving more measured and friendly responses as opposed to his usual exuberance. He was still all smiles, though. Sai remained mostly quiet, though from the faces of the other rookies I could tell his fake smile still needed work. Sakura gesticulated somewhat, which let me catch a glimpse of her gloves. She'd gotten taijutsu training already? Good. Coupled with the short hair she now sported, I'm guessing she got her shit together early. The changes I was seeing were encouraging, even if the changes did put me slightly on edge, knowing that I could no longer be so sure I knew these people so well.

Team Guy finally wandered in after playing the fools. They looked over the room, naturally, and I could see the moment where Lee spotted Sakura. I nudged Fu and gestured to them, waiting to see what happened. She leaned forward slightly with a smirk.

The green-clad genin maneuvered between the rookies with a "Pardon me!" until he arrived in front of her, a dusting of pink on his cheeks. "My name is Rock lee. You are Sakura-san, right?"

She paused a moment, then said "Yes?" in an expectant tone.

Lee gave the Guy Might trademark smile and thumbs-up. "Please go out with me! I'll protect you until I die!" Light from the window pinged off his teeth. What a guy.

"No," she responded immediately.

Lee immediately looked crestfallen. "But… why?"

Sakura just sort of tilts her head in an "Are you stupid" kind of way. "I literally just met you. You didn't even try to get to know me and I don't know you. Kinda creepy."

Lee slunk over to the wall and leaned against it, depressed. I shared a chuckle with Fu. Lee really needed to reconsider his approach with women if he wanted to get somewhere anytime soon. I seem to recall he had a son in Boruto, but no idea with who.

At that moment, a puff of smoke erupted at the front of the room. Ibiki came out and gave his usual spiel as the chunin proctors around the room arranged the gathered genin into different seats. All teams got spread out pretty widely, I was fairly close to the front while Fu was near the back, Torio was somewhere in the middle.

The exam was pretty nothing, all considered. I even went ahead and tried answering them, which I was pretty confident with given all my knowledge, so I think I may have served as someone else's cheat paper. I didn't bother trying to cheat since the risk wasn't worth it. Mercifully, Torio was either good enough at cheating or confident enough with her answers that we didn't get booted out like many other teams did over the course of the hour. I couldn't see Fu, obviously, but she knew the game here and was probably relaxing right now.

The final dreaded 10th question came up. Bail and fail this exam, or stick with it and risk being stuck as genin forever. Honestly, most of the genin here were much older than myself and the Konoha 12, I don't see how they would believe Ibiki had the authority to limit their careers forever. Nerves will do that, but they didn't try to think this through, apparently. I don't remember how many teams dropped out canonically, but since Naruto had no grand speech to say to rally the remaining teams I'd guess a few more left here.

Soon enough, Ibiki got tired of making them sweat and announced we'd all passed. He explained the reason behind it all, then wished us good luck. The window shattered and out came a very attractive woman in fishnets top and bottom, orange skirt, and tan long coat. Behind her was a hand-painted banner held up by kunai thrown into the ceiling. "You guys! This isn't the time to be celebrating! I'm the proctor for the second exam, Anko Mitarashi! Let's move on to the next stage!" She raised a fist to the air. "Follow me!"

There was a moment of silence, then I heard clapping behind me. I turned and saw Fu clapping enthusiastically with a smile on her face. I chuckled and started clapping as well - it was quite an entrance. Some other genin joined in for some lukewarm applause, though most didn't seem as genuine about it as Fu and I. She grinned at this nonetheless, then took stock of the room. "Eeeh? 24 teams passed? I guess the first exam this time around was too easy. Don't worry," she gave a deathly smile to the room. "I'll drop more than half of them in the second exam."

She finished her own spiel and told us to get our information from our jounin about where to meet tomorrow, then left. Tempting though it was to catch up with team Guy or introduce ourselves to the rookie 9, we were still in the exams, so we left for our hotels.

---

The Forest of Death was massive, and it really struck home just how big Konoha was to keep some place like this in its walls. Anko began her fear tactics and cheerfully described the horrors that awaited.

"Yeah right, I bet this place is a piece of cake!" Kiba shouted.

The kunai sliced his cheek before he knew what was happening, and Anko appeared behind him with another kunai. "You're not afraid, are you?" she asked sensually while he stood there stunned. "Tough guys like you usually leave your blood all over this forest."

He stammered out some kind of bravado, then Anko let him go and she retrieved her kunai. I took that as a very good sign. Orochimaru would definitely have messed with her if he was here, but there was nothing. Fu, attuned to me as she is, felt the relief spread over me and put a hand on my back.

The hot older kunoichi got everyone's attention again. "Alright maggots, listen." She held up a stack of papers. "These are consent forms you need to sign to continue. It basically says you know you're dead meat in this forest and it's not Konoha's fault you sucked as a ninja and died." Since we were nearby, she handed the stack over to Fu. Anko looked her up and down, then grinned. "I like your style, kid. Not everyone can appreciate a good performance. what's your name?"

"Fu," my mint-haired friend replied with a smile. "And I like yours, too."

Having never thought about the two of them in the same context, it really was striking the similarities they had. The fishnets, long sleeves, light colors, spiky hanging hair, showing plenty of skin… I was surprised.

Fu handed around the forms, and I looked it over briefly. It was just as Anko said; we who are about to die do not blame Konoha for it. If our bodies were recovered, they'd be sent home. Stuff like that. Our team dutifully signed. We stepped in the tent and received a heaven scroll and were told what gate we were meant to be at. I hoped we were nowhere near the Konoha 12.

"Alright, our plan is to get to the tower as soon as possible, then lay an ambush and wait for other teams to show up," Fu told us. "And be sure to watch out for any animals, this forest probably has some nasty ones."

A spike of information shot through my brain and my eyes went wide.

"Ito? Something wrong?" Torio asked.

I shook my head. "No, just… don't want to get eaten by an animal. That would be a very silly way to go."

She accepted it at that, but Fu caught my eye and knew there was something more to it than that. There was, of course.

I'd forgotten that some time during the second exam, Karin was separated from her team and nearly killed by a massive bear. She was saved by Sasuke, who just dropped in, killed the bear, saw she had the same scroll as his team, then left. And now I've killed Sasuke, and she'll be in grave danger.

The second the gates popped open, we rushed in. I dropped behind slightly, then quietly made 5 shadow clones. They quickly transformed into birds, then took off flying. One would fly above us and keep an eye out for any nearby threats, the others had a different goal. They'd be scanning for Karin's team and any massive bears in the forest, ready to step in when needed. I just had to hope they'd arrive in time. I wanted to send more clones, but 5 was already a lot for me. I'd have to integrate another heart to have enough chakra to feel comfortable throwing out more. Maybe when we broke for camp.

We spent most of the afternoon running, pausing for breaks every now and then. Fu was able to keep an eye out thanks to her chakra sensing. I could as well, but… the Forest of Death was lively, so it was a little rough on my enhanced senses. I didn't turn them off, of course - that would've been asking for trouble, and I needed practice perceiving environments like this. Soon enough, we got to an appreciable distance from the main tower and decided to set up a camp.

Following the principles that Norinaga showed us, and since the forest was incredibly thick and lush, we set up a few sleeping spots in the upper canopies overlooking a small clearing. Inside and around that clearing, we laid several traps. Finally, we set a smaller and more obvious campsite in the clearing with a fire. Not large enough to draw everybody around us, but enough that anyone passing by the area would definitely take notice.

It was while we were finishing up the campfire that Fu stood straight up. She darted over to where Torio and I were, then started signing. [Three enemies incoming, above average strength.] She paused, then continued. [A few more behind them, but they feel much stronger and are keeping their distance.]

[Proctors?] I suggested.

[I hope so,] Torio chimed in while looking around.

[Plan?]

[We have an ambush ready. Let's use it.] Fu gave a smirk.

We all shuffled into positions around the fire, making small talk. While this happened, my clone monitoring us popped to show me memories of our targets from above. I was glad to have some of my chakra back for the coming encounter. I could sense their approach; the leaves being rustled and the unmistakable rapid steps of a ninja, the slight smell of metal that grew stronger, I could even see the slight shifts in the forest from hundreds of feet away.

A couple minutes later, three genin dropped into the clearing.

"Ito…" Torio murmured, staring at their headbands.

"I know."

"Ah, so you recognize these," their leader taunted.

The three sound genin, team Dosu, appeared before us. Kin, the senbon genjutsu girl; Zaku, the armed air cannon; and Dosu, with infrasound punch bracers and a fuzzy shell on his back. Despite the more eccentric accessories, I liked the camouflage they had going on. But this was no time to be contemplating fashion. These three were tough enough customers that I was going to need to be careful if I wanted to maintain my weaker cover and still win. Especially now that I knew there were potential witnesses.

"You two visited a little base a while ago," Dosu pointed to myself and Torio. "Well, our master has some questions for you, and you're going to answer."

"And what if we don't want to answer to some snake's flunkies?" I stated boldly.

That got Kin and Zaku to flinch and scowl, but Dosu remained implacable. "Then we'll ask you less politely."

My eyes narrowed, then turned to the team. [Quickly, analysis,] Fu signed.

[Long sleeves probably hiding something important, probably some jutsu attached to them. Stay far away,] I noted of their leader.

[Girl feels weaker chakra than others, probably genjutsu specialist, flare chakra regularly,] Fu came back. [And feel some kind of chakra from inside those sleeves.]

Torio nodded. [Something weird in the other guy's hands.]

"So, have you decided if you'll play nice?" Dosu asked while he and his team slowly stalked forward.

Fu crossed her arms. "We're not gonna talk to an illusion."

That gave them a slight pause. "We weren't asking you, jinchuriki," Zaku cut in. "Besides, we're not illusions."

"Oh come on," Torio added. "We're not that easy to fool, you're just a bunch of illusions or something, right? A genjutsu."

Dosu lazily tossed a kunai directly at us, which was blocked. It wasn't a serious throw. "Oh we're very real. And if you don't-"

An explosion erupted in the clearing, blasting the sound team to the trees above. We'd seeded the entire area with explosive tags under a layer of soil and grass, taking great care to make it blend in. Our spot was, of course, free of the mines, and we'd hit the deck as soon as we felt it coming. We just needed to confirm they weren't fakes before hitting them with it. Nothing like wasting your ambush on a clone to make you feel foolish.

The blood that decorated the area and dripped from above was testament to their solidity. The fact that none of them were dead was testament to their reflexes. They'd fled to a thick tree limb high above us. Kin was missing a foot and her left leg up to the knee, while Dosu and Zaku were merely bloodied. Her lack of screaming was testament to her will.

That our team immediately pushed the offensive was testament to our skill.

Zaku immediately blasted his sound cannons at us, which we swiftly avoided. He and Dosu jumped down to intercept us, keeping Kin out of the fray while she shakily drew out some bandages to improvise a tourniquet, which was smart. She couldn't help the battle if she bled out, after all.

Torio and I wasted no time in throwing a multitude of sharp things at them, which Zaku hit with a lighter blast that knocked them off course. We'd have to hit him from where he couldn't see if we wanted to take him down from range. Dosu came swinging at Fu, but she kept far back and kept smirking at him. He was strong and had a powerful tool on his side, but Fu was far stronger and had years of experience on him.

I didn't much fancy trying to take down the blaster from range, so I pulsed my chakra, which Fu noticed, and I gave a hand signal to Torio. She went right for Zaku, who was trying to pin us down with his own thrown weapons, and quickly attacked him with a series of brutal strikes. Their leader, on the other hand, had to cut off his pursuit when several shuriken and bolas diced the area he was about to step into. He spotted me, leaning around a tree trunk and throwing another bola, and Torio off to the side. He changed targets to me and I ducked behind the tree, but he came around and slammed his fist into my face.

Or he would have, if his fist hadn't passed through my academy-level clone and just dented the tree instead. He ducked and used his braces to block the kunai that came in to hit him, and he looked to the source. Except there were a few sources for him to choose from - Several more clones of myself were dotted around the foliage, all brandishing weapons. Torio herself had a few clones to add to the fray. In unison, we bombarded him with weapons.

Ninja trained by Orochimaru are able to handle a little overload, though, and he managed to avoid the projectiles, unsure which were illusory and which were real and not wanting to find out. He had to chase our clones down, dispelling them one by one as we hopped about. It was essentially guerilla warfare, which was how war was meant to be done between shinobi. He managed to catch up to Arai, though. As he advanced on one of her clones, she leapt out from a tree with kunai in hands. Her chest stab was blocked by his bracer, but the other found purchase in his side. The victory was short lived, however, as he immediately bashed her directly in the face. My hearing picked up the infrasound waves from my position below them, and I even saw the distortions and color of the sound waves. Torio's eyes went wide as she grunted in pain, completely throwing her off balance, and she fell.

I leapt out and caught her as she was falling, bleeding off the momentum by bouncing from trunk to trunk as we descended to the surface of the forest. I found us a small crevice under some tree roots and examined her bleeding ears. Dosu had me now though, and my clones weren't able to distract him now that he had us in his sights. Thus, he followed shortly after.

"You two are good, better than I expected," he admitted. The scowl was visible through his mask. "But I'm through playing nice."

We were boxed in by the roots, and I couldn't exactly leave Torio there, so I let him charge us and braced for the impact. His fist hit something solid, but I imagine he was quite disappointed when it was revealed to be a log. As was Torio. And they both had several explosive tags burning on them.

The sound leader absorbed much of the force of the blast, mitigated somewhat by him leaping back at the same time, but his retreat brought him no safety. Two pairs of bolas wrapped around him, stabbing into his legs and torso, and he went down. I wasted no time pelting his legs with a few shuriken, then jumped in and stabbed my kunai through his hands while he was facedown. He shouted in pain, but I tapped a kunai against the back of his head.

"You want to live, you won't move another muscle. You try to tear yourself free and you'll probably bleed out anyway."

He stayed quiet, which was good enough for me. He wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

"Got him?" Came a voice, and Fu descended from the trees. Over one shoulder was Kin, under the other arm was Zaku. Both were clearly unconscious and bound tightly, also sporting obviously broken legs. Good way to keep them from running if they awoke.

With my limited chakra senses, I confirmed it was Fu. I knew her chakra better than anybody. "Yeah, we got him. We used the 'Mirror Image' strategy. You?"

"Well, this guy was pretty good with his air blasts, but once I got up close he wasn't much to deal with," Fu dumped his body to the ground. "Her? She'd just barely finished getting herself patched up when I popped up behind her. She surrendered pretty easily, since, y'know, missing a leg and all that." She dropped the girl to the ground as well. Dosu lifted his head enough to stare at his defeated comrades, then slumped back down. "How's Torio?" she glanced over to where I'd left our teammate.

Between the infrasound strike, the bouncy fall, and the substitution jutsu, Torio was pretty green in the gills. She was down on her knees and throwing up. I gave her a moment, then came over. I fished out my canteen and handed it to her, which she accepted gratefully, splashing it in her mouth to clean it out before taking a swig. I gave her a quick once over and snapped my fingers by both ears. "Disoriented, but no hearing loss. She should be fine after some rest. Hopefully not while we're camped out here."

"That reminds me!" Fu suddenly exclaimed. She turned to Dosu. "Where's your scroll?"

"...in my left pouch," he stated.

Wary of a trap and ready to substitute at a moment's notice, Fu carefully opened the pouch and produced the scroll. "Earth! We're in luck, we just need to get to the tower now."

Torio breathed a sigh of relief, and I nodded. "First things first." I walked over to Dosu. "You work for Orochimaru, obviously. What does he want from us? What questions were you going to ask?"

The downed sound ninja grunted, but didn't say anything. I crouched by Kin and drew a kunai. "All I need to do is cut her tourniquet and she'll bleed out right here," I threatened.

He gave me a glare, but it oddly also had some respect behind it. "Orochimaru-sama knows that you two were part of the team that found his base in Kusa. He wanted to know exactly how genin managed to find one of his strongholds."

"Maybe he has too much faith in his shinobi's capacity for stealth," I quipped. "What else?"

"The thing that killed everyone inside… my master has no knowledge of the monster that the reports described." I shared a glance with my teammates. They had spies good enough to know A-rank secrets. I knew that was probably the case, but it still wasn't good.

"The hell do you mean?" Torio demanded.

"Whatever it was, Orochimaru-sama had never heard of it. He'd never worked on or experimented on anything like it. He wanted to hear everything you knew about it."

Another glance between us. Fu and I knew the score, but Torio was confused. She opened her mouth to say something, but I stopped her. Whatever her questions may have been, giving more information to the enemy was never a good thing.

My friend hummed. "Is that all?"

He seemed to want to shrug, but his injuries and being incapacitated prevented it."More questions would have come, depending on your answers. But yes, that was all."

"Alright." I signalled to Torio, and she and I quickly looted the unconscious genin, scoring their spare supplies. "We'll be taking these," I informed him. "Again, I wouldn't recommend trying anything if you want to not bleed out." He glared as Fu stepped on his arms as I removed the kunai and took his bracers one after the other. Then he was bound like his comrades while I sealed them away in a scroll. "Only question left is what to do with you three."

Fu tensed, and at that moment three Konoha ninjas shunshin'd in. "We'll be taking them from here," came the cheerily bloodthirsty voice of Anko Mitarashi.

I raised an eyebrow. "I thought proctors weren't supposed to interfere with the testers."

"You've thoroughly beaten them, and very nice work by the way," she praised with a grin. "However, they're also known operatives of a traitor to the village. So, we're all going to say that they… died during the test, while we take them to some nice comfortable interrogation cells." She pat Dosu on the cheek. "Oh, we're going to have fun together. You're going to tell me aaaaaaaaaaalllll about your master." She looked at the rest of us "This encounter is now considered an A-rank secret by Konoha. You can tell your jounin and your village leader, naturally, but nobody else. Is that clear?" She backed it up with some killing intent.

Torio balked slightly, I shuddered and shrank (acted, of course, though it was a new experience to feel directed killing intent), and Fu weathered it gamely. I wonder how my own killing intent would feel…

We all nodded, and she let up. "Good luck with the rest of the exams!" With that, she grabbed Dosu while the other two proctors grabbed his teammates, and they left in another shunshin.

"...Okay then." I took a look around. "We seem to have lost sight of the tower. Fu, you stay here and keep an eye on Torio while I get a vantage point. Then we can spend the next four days relaxing." [Anyone else nearby?]

"Sounds good." [We're clear, no one even close to my senses.]

I nodded and hopped up several trees, quickly finding a break in the canopy that let me see the tower. Once I had located it, I sat down and quickly concentrated. Quickly, my torso became converted into mostly threads. I popped out two hearts from my seals and integrated them, then used the abundance of chakra to spawn a few dozen more clones to patrol. That done, I returned the hearts to their preserving jars and sealed them away. I also sealed away Dosu's bracers. I didn't have much use for them at the moment, but never knew when having extra armor and chakra tech would come in handy. Finally, I returned my body to normal and descended.

A quick sign-countersign to confirm my identity, and we ran for the tower.

---

Time in the tower was pretty nice, all told.

The second day, one of my clones popped.

I was flying through the canopy when I caught sight of a massive bear lolloping through the undergrowth. I tracked it for a while, then saw it come upon the target. Karin barely noticed it until it was standing practically on top of her, growling hungrily. It snapped at her and she bolted. I quickly dropped the henge and dove down, slamming into the beat from above. I used the few threads in my hand to pierce its brain, and it went down with a thunderous crash. Idly, I contemplated that I could probably replicate a bear this size if I put my mind to it. It would require a lot of biomass, but having a giant killer bear at your beck and call…

Karin had fallen further ahead, ducking her head in what she thought was certain death. "Please take more care in the future, we live in a dangerous world." She reacted to my voice, but her eyesight was poor and she reached for her glasses. "Be well." I dispelled before she could turn around and see me.

The innocent girl was saved, and my identity remained hidden. The influx of chakra and memories was quite uncomfortable from all my other clones dispelling. Other than that, it was a pretty quiet day.

On the third day, more teams started to trickle in. Team Baki, the Suna siblings, popped in early in the day. The two older siblings seemed surprised someone had beaten them to the tower. I wondered if we should have delayed our arrival to stand out less, but the chances of being attacked was far too great. I pulled us away before Gaara got any ideas - his path was precarious, and I couldn't risk an idle conversation potentially jeopardizing his future. They didn't seem put out. It probably happened all the time for them.

One of the teams that arrived was team 7. Our team was relaxing alone in one of the common areas when they walked by, saw us, and came in.

"Hi," Naruto greeted as they walked in. "You're team Norinaga, right?"

"Yeah, that's us," Fu greeted. She seemed a little nervous, and I don't blame her. What was Naruto doing talking to us? Having the main character of the universe give you their attention almost always guaranteed something interesting happening. And at the moment, we didn't want interesting. "And you're Naruto-san."

He grimaced slightly. "Yeah, we didn't really get to meet properly when we last saw each other." Sakura's expression fell a bit, and Sai remained inscrutable. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, but you can just call me Naruto. This is Sakura Haruno," the pinkette smiled and nodded, "and Sai." The pale boy gave his trademark fake smile.

"I'm Fu, and this is Arai Torio," the girl waved, "and Ito Ikimono."

"Ito's just fine," I told them.

"What did you do to your headbands?" the Konoha girl asked, tilting her head.

"We tarnished the metal so they wouldn't reflect light," Torio said. "Makes it easier to hide. Ito told us it's what his grandfather did with his."

That gave them a moment's pause for thought as they contemplated their own headbands. I pushed on. "So, what brings you by?"

They took some seats opposite us. "Well, Kakashi-sensei is pretty good friends with Guy-san, and he told us a bunch about you three and how you might end up working with Konoha," the fox-boy explained. "I thought it would be nice to meet you all, since you sounded pretty cool!"

Was the enthusiasm real, or faked? I couldn't be sure, but the intentions seemed benign enough. I waved away some of the paranoia. Even if Naruto had suddenly dedicated his life to becoming a master at faking his emotions, old habits die hard and he'd only have had a few months' practice at it. "I'm sorry I can't say the same, Naruto-san. I don't think team Guy had ever met you."

Naruto waved it off. "They were in the year ahead of us, we never saw them before that Lee kid came up and asked Sakura out."

Sakura blushed slightly while Fu and I laughed. "He did almost the same thing to Fu when they first met," I informed them with a chortle. "Lee's is a bit weird and awkward, but he's a really great guy and means well. I'd take it as a compliment, Haruno-san."

"If you say so," she half-mumbled.

"I still think the green pervert was a little too forward, Nerd," came the unexpected input of Sai, complete with uncanny smile. The latter term was addressed to me.

I, and my teammates, gave him half-confused and half-disapproving look. Sakura sighed and put a firm hand on his shoulder. "Sai, what did we talk about with nicknames?"

"That nicknames aren't something you can just throw on everybody and expect them to go with it," the pale boy dutifully recited.

"Please forgive Sai-san," the konoha kunoichi implored. "He's never really socialized with people and is still learning."

"It's fine," I brushed it off. "'Nerd' is actually kinda appropriate for me, but I don't think anyone would want to be called 'pervert' for a nickname." Except maybe Jiraiya. "But can you cut it out with the smile? It's a little creepy."

"So, what kind of missions did you guys do together?" the blond boy blatantly changed the subject.

We spent about an hour or two regaling them with stories of our exploits, from Lee and Guy's enthusiasm, to Neji being a pretentious prick about fate, to Tenten's solid skills. They probably filed all that information away in case they ended up fighting in the exams, but they weren't going to kill their fellow genin so it'd be fine. Team 7 volunteered a few missions of their own, which were back when Sasuke was on the team. They started a little melancholic, but were smiling by the end as they talked about their old friend. Maybe it was therapeutic for them to talk it over with people who didn't know him. Sai didn't mind not partaking in the conversation much. It also carefully omitted their own recent training, keeping their abilities more secret than ours. Again, I wasn't concerned.

After tale-swapping had petered off, the blond boy cleared his throat. "So, Fu-san, I had something I wanted to ask you," Naruto prevaricated.

"Sure, go for it."

"In private. It's kind of… personal."

Fu looked at us. Torio shrugged. I shrugged as well and smiled, having an inkling as to what the nature of that conversation would be. I trusted Fu and she was smart enough not to let anything important or suspicious slip, so I had no objections.

My best friend looked back at him with a smile and pushed herself off the couch. "Lead the way, Naruto-san."

He did just that and they left the room. Now I was here with a ROOT operative, a half-decent kunoichi, and a main character with fancy hair. Seeing a way to limit myself from the conversation, I pulled out my knitting supplies from my bag and resumed work on a pair of socks.

"Oh, so you must be the one who knit that bag," Sakura noted.

"Indeed. Knitting is my hobby." I gave a small smile and resumed clacking away.

"Can you tell me more about hobbies?" Sai questioned. I sighed internally. I was trying to step out of the conversation, not become the center of attention.

I raised an eyebrow at Sakura, who gave a sort of tolerating shrug, as if to say "he really doesn't know much, he's not making fun of you." I slowed in my movements while I spoke, as if dividing my attention between the two was somehow a challenge. "Generally speaking, hobbies are activities people enjoy that helps them relax and relieve negative emotions, while not necessarily being serious pursuits." I lifted the socks a little. "I like knitting, but I'm never going to make a career out of making clothes, if you see what I mean. But some people do."

Sai had a notebook out and was writing. "And what other things can people do as a hobby?"

"Seriously, dude?" Torio asked disbelievingly. "Anything can be a hobby, really. Fishing, dancing, fighting, reading, knitting, drawing, whatever helps you chill."

Sai didn't react, but I get the feeling the last one caught his attention. "It's very important to find ways to let off steam. Holding in feelings is a good way to get hurt or go crazy, one way or another," I lectured. "Take Guy-san: he runs around all day shouting about youth and dressing in green spandex. It seems weird, but that's his way of coping with all the stressors of life. And he's one of the best and most powerful jounin out there."

"How would you know?" Sakura seemed split between her question and trying to shake off the thought of there being an adult version of Lee.

The pale boy eyed me, suspicious as he was trained, searching for a hint of any slip-ups or giving too much information away . But I had 14 years of experience in hiding who I was, so he found nothing.

I shrugged. "I guess I can't know for sure, but he's really good. If you'd seen him fight, you'd get it." My gaze returned to Sai, still writing. "To be honest, I didn't have any good hobbies for a long time. I just read a lot and didn't do much else. Fu was the one who helped me find something that just clicked with me, and it's helped a great deal." My piece said, I went back to knitting.

Sai had a character arc that led him away from being Danzo's bitch boy and gave him an actual personality and desires, as well as making him a halfway decent person. Hopefully, with him being stuck with such emotional team members before he had 3 more years of indoctrination would help him along that path. Sharing something a little personal to impress upon him the importance of having emotions was a fair trade.

The rest made some small talk after that, Torio even gave Sakura a few tips on throwing weapons while Sakura showed her how to give a better punch. It wasn't until about an hour later that Naruto and Fu returned. Our teams bid each other farewell, and they went off somewhere. Torio went back to the room, leaving Fu and I by ourselves.

[Anyone nearby?] I signed.

[Everyone's on other floors or on the other side of the building.]

"So, how did it go?" I relaxed into the couch and she sat down next to me.

"He wanted to know stuff about Lucky-chan. She told me to take his hand, so we did and all of a sudden we were in my mindscape. Kyuubi wasn't too happy to see us all, but he said that my version of Taki was an improvement over a sewer. He and Naruto got to talking for a while until he got annoyed and told him to go away so he could sleep, then Naruto came over and hung out with us. He wanted to know how I got so much control of Chomei's chakra, and I just told him that we were friends and she willingly gave me her chakra. We told him that the Kyuubi's a person too, and that he didn't ask to get stuck inside Naruto, so try treating him like one instead of a burden." She shrugged. "He said he wasn't sure if the Kyuubi made friends, but he would definitely try. We ended up giving him tips on his own mindscape, since it's basically your own private room with your biju, and how he could try improving it as a way to start. Getting on the fox's good side. Finally, Chomei wanted to talk with Kyuubi in private for a bit. So Naruto and I worked on his mindscape until they were done, then it was over."

"Nice work," I praised while running my hand through her hair. She smiled at me. "Hopefully this will kick start their relationship. The sooner those two become partners, the better."

"Mmm," she lazily agreed. "Oh, and we talked a little bit about Gaara. We both know he's got that crazy tanuki in him now. Chomei mentioned that he probably made Gaara crazy which is why he acts like a maniac. It's not really his fault."

I chuckled. "Poor kid had a hell of a childhood. At least his life takes a turn for the better later, and he's got a great amount of power to go with it."

"Kind of like me," she mused.

I withdrew my hand from her hair and hooked it around her shoulder, giving her a hug. We relaxed for a while then had dinner.

On the fourth day, team Guy made an appearance with the other rookie teams. We talked with them for a while. They were suitably impressed that we'd gotten here on the first day, but that was expected when an enemy team threw themselves at you and they happened to have the right scroll. We told them they'd been killed in the battle, and no more was said on the matter.

Day five rolled around and at the end of the day, everyone was called into the main room. The jounin-senseis, proctors, and Hokage were there while we lined up in formation. The familiar faces spread around were quite something to see in person, and I'll admit I had to reign in my enthusiasm. The things the people in this room would do…

The Hokage delivered his speech about the purpose and origins of the chunin exam while puffing away on his pipe. I got that the man had earned it and wasn't long for this life anyway, but I'd have preferred if he didn't smoke in a closed room. I wasn't at any risk, but second-hand smoke was a health hazard for the young people in this room.

The point was emphasized by Hayate dropping in and explaining that there were too many genin between rasping coughs. The numbers would have to be culled before the third exam finalists were decided, and thus one-on-one battles would be the solution.

"If there's anybody who doesn't feel fit to fight now, you should leave," he stated before succumbing to a coughing fit.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kabuto slump and step out. "I'm still too worn out from getting to the tower. I resign."

Now that I looked, it seemed like all of the canon teams were here, minus the sound team whose place my team was now taking.

Since there were no more takers, Hayate laid out the rules and a big monitor was revealed from behind the giant arms. Why they had it structured like that was anybody's guess. The names flit by, and then they finally settled.

"Yoroi Akado and Sai, you'll stay down here," he blandly informed them. "Everyone else will clear the area."

We all shuffled along to the upper balconies and settled in to watch the fight.

Yoroi activated his chakra stealing almost immediately, but against Sai it was a bad matchup. Sai was a ranged fighter, as he proved by unfurling his scrolls and letting loose some ink tigers and some ink snakes. Yoroi tried to close the distance but the pale genin was too quick and he was getting bogged down by the creations. Eventually, he was bound up in snakes and forced to surrender.

The battle between Sakura and Ino was far different from canon. It wasn't a pathetic slap fight, Sakura wiped the floor with Ino. The pinkette started with some quick genjutsu to avoid the mind transfer technique, then basically smacked Ino around until she was unconscious.

Torio went in against Shikamaru. She managed to put up a good fight, using some clones and then cloning her thrown weapons en masse provided a solid offense and hit Shikamaru pretty good, but in the end his shadow jutsus and superior planning took her down. They both wound up carted to the infirmary.

Kiba didn't stand a chance against Naruto. Kakashi must have been making him eat his Wheaties, because he decimated the wolf boy and his dog. His taijutsu actually resembled a style instead of flailing, he was almost always on the move, and was faster than Kiba. Throw in a few clones and he ate the dirt hard.

I cheered heartily at Fu's match against Choji. The moment the fight began, Fu belted out handseals faster than he could react and blasted him against the wall with a gust of wind. She kept him pinned there despite his attempts to get up as she advanced. Then, she held him against the wall, placed the tip of her kunai against his throat, and released the wind. He surrendered, and felt awfully sheepish about the whole thing, but Fu shook his hand afterward and wished him good luck in the next exam. She returned to a big hug from me and compliments from Norinaga for the efficient fight.

"Shino Aburame and Ito Ikimono, please come down to the floor."

I held back a grin as I loosened my clothing up. I wasn't expecting to get anything out of this exam, but it seemed I was lucky.

"Good luck, Ito!" Fu said.

"Let's have a good match, Aburame-san," I greeted politely. He nodded in return. As if I didn't see the tiny beetles he shed as he came down to the floor, their tiny steps and wings all too audible to my ears.

"Fighters ready? Begin!"

I wasted no time in leaping back and throwing my bolas towards him, which were sidestepped. So I drew a few more and circled around, flinging them around his feet to limit his mobility. He just stood there, and while I knew what he was doing, I played along. I jumped back and prepared to throw a barrage at him, only to suddenly "notice" a crawling sensation on my skin and the feeling of my chakra levels dropping.

A quick glance ensured the Hyuugas didn't have their eyes activated, and my back opened up. The few threads I had throughout my body were still more than enough to devour insects that small and rapidly converted the tiny amount to spare biomass. I suddenly started patting at my back and legs, hopping away from where I just was. "What the heck is this?" I asked while probably looking like a bit of a madman.

"Ah, so you noticed." Shino held up a finger, on the end of which was a tiny black beetle. Loads of which were now crawling out from his trousers onto the floor, forming a swarm large enough to be seen as opposed to the scattered ones that had latched onto me.

"These are a very rare species of parasitic beetles that feed on chakra. The ones already on you have probably taken a good amount of yours. My swarm here will take the rest, and it looks like you don't have any jutsu to stop them. Your only logical choice is to forfeit the match."

I finished smashing all the ones on my body, and looked at him with a slightly pained and tired expression. "Well played. I don't want to be throwing around explosive tags at an ally, so…" I gave a slight bow, then turned to Hayate. "Proctor, I forfeit."

"The winner is Shino Aburame," he announced with little care.

Shino inclined his head to me and went upstairs. Hinata gave him a quiet but honest congratulations as he returned. I waved off the need for a medic. It wasn't like I'd taken any damage aside from some chakra. Fu gave me a hug when I returned. "It was a bad matchup for you. You'll get it next time."

I gave her a grin. "Yeah, I know."

"What did you mean down there?" Naruto asked. He had wandered over to our end.

"I'm not sure I follow."

"About the explosive tags, you said you weren't going to use them."

"Well yea," I stated simply. "I always keep explosive tags on me. They were the only thing I had that could probably take on Aburame-san's swarm there." I shrugged "But, we're allies. And there's a good chance I'll be seeing him around Konoha more often. I wasn't going to start throwing around lethal force against someone who wasn't my enemy just for a promotion. He likely would have been fine, but…" I grimaced. "We used an explosive trap in the forest, and it killed one of the people attacking us. I'm not risking that."

"Then you are weak," Gaara asserted. "You should have taken his life and proven your existence. He was your enemy in that fight, and your enemies must be killed."

"That's not true," Naruto countered. "We're comrades, there's no need to use that level of violence, Even if someone is your enemy, they don't have to die."

"You are both fools," the redhead dismissed us. "I shall show you what it means to prove yourself." He stalked back to his family, who were looking a mite worried.

"Poor kid," Fu whispered, loud enough so Naruto could hear. He glared at the boy's back, but nodded slightly.

"That was a very mature decision you made, Ito," Norinaga told me. "Not all genin have the guts to turn down a risk like that, ally or not."

The rest of the fights proceeded as canon.

Kankuro pulled off an impressive display with his puppetry.

Tenten sadly got taken down brutally by Temari.

Hinata and Neji fought, and the jounin had to step in to keep Neji from killing her. Naruto didn't shout out to her during the match, but he was definitely giving her encouraging looks. Neji was pretty smug at his victory, while Naruto had dagger-eyes at the prick. Meanwhile, I despaired at the lost opportunity as her blood was cleaned from the arena. The thought of pairing the Byakugan with the Sharingan was an intoxicating idea that made my head hurt just picturing it.

Lee put on a hell of a display against Gaara, even using his staff in the fight before dropping it because it wasn't quick enough for the attacks he needed to make, before Guy eventually stepped in and ended it. Guy returned to the balcony in tears, ashamed at what he'd driven Lee to do, to be. Fu and I stood by him and provided some silent support.

"With that match, the third exam preliminaries are now finished," Hayate announced.

We all returned to the (ruined) battle floor in front of the Hokage. Despite my personal opinions of the man, he wore that robe and hat with style. He laid out the tournament rules and told us to draw lots.

Neji took one out. "Two."

"Ten," went Sakura.

"Seven," Fu announced with a grin.

"One," Naruto declared.

"Six," came Temari.

"Nine," Sai displayed.

"Three," Kankuro said.

"Eight." Gaara fixed his eyes on Fu menacingly. That… may make things complicated.

"Four," Shino stated.

"Guess that means I'm… five," Shikamaru sighed.

Ibiki showed us the brackets on his clipboard, with the finalists going head-to-head-to-head. The Hokage dismissed us and we all went our separate ways.

Norinaga took us by the infirmary to pick up Torio. Aside from a massive headache and some bruising, she was fit to travel, so we left for home.

When we finally got back the next day, Norinaga addressed us. "Team, I'm proud of the skills you showed during the exams. The Hokage already briefed me on the sound ninjas, and I couldn't be happier with how you handled them." He gave us a smile. "Torio, Ito; though you failed your first time, I have every confidence you'll be able to succeed the next one." He grew serious. "That said, this next month is going to be focused on Fu. I'll be training her exclusively to prepare for the tournament. You two are expected to keep up your own training."

""Yes, sir.""

"In addition… It is very likely that Fu will be promoted after this exam, win or lose the tournament. That means that our team will become assigned to Konoha on a permanent basis. I'd recommend you both pack your things and be prepared to move out when that happens." We nodded, a little more subdued. "Take the next couple days off. Fu, I expect to see you in two days at the training grounds. Be ready for intense training."

Fu grinned. "Bring it on."

---

Torio and I went back to training solo over the course of the month, which was what I wanted. I had a lot to do and couldn't be bothered by trying to fit that in my schedule.

After I'd reconverted myself back to threads, I would practice rapid shifting of my threads and body. The goal was moving towards instantaneous transition between flesh and biomass. I had also nearly emptied my bank accounts, citing that I'd be moving banks to one in Konoha soon, though I kept a little there. I sent out many clones under henge to purchase resources I wouldn't have access to for much longer, adding to the already large stock I'd been building over time. Better to be over-prepared. It was a good thing my body had so many storage seals - between the library and the supplies, I was certainly getting my money's worth on them. I even got Fu in with Otesso for three storage seals - one on each forearm, and one on her lower back.

What's more, I removed all of my notes from my cave laboratory and sealed off the entrance with an earth jutsu. I contemplated emptying it completely and filling it back up with rock and dirt, but decided against it. Nobody would be discovering it anytime soon, it would be difficult to link it back to me, I'd be long gone by then, and I rather liked the notion of leaving a small mark on the world for some hapless ninja to stumble on someday.

During this time, Fu also kept up correspondence with team Guy. Lee's condition was still serious, and it didn't look good for him. It was a fair assessment; without Tsunade, he probably would've never fully healed and wouldn't be able to improve. Tenten was bummed she failed, and was none too happy with the way Neji had treated Hinata. She privately expressed hope Naruto might take him down a peg, though doubted anyone could beat him.

Norinaga proved as good as his word, since Fu would come in every night sore and worn out, crawling into bed with a clone I always left for her. I would've liked to join her in person, but I was too busy and sleep wasn't a luxury I could afford. Sundays were rest days. She had decided to step up her sword training primarily, as well as her jutsu speed. Norinaga was aware of Gaara's jinchuriki status, along with his mental status. He advised Fu to surrender after putting on a good show to avoid things getting messy. However, that was just her physical training. She made legions of shadow clones to train with me each morning, which tackled a variety of tasks from continuing strategy studies to advanced chakra theory, taught by me with my metaknowledge and library.

After absorbing Shino's chakra-draining beetles, I now knew how to drain people's chakra. With my sheer size and the amount of threads I could wrap around someone, I could drain someone far faster than Yoroi's specialized jutsu technique. I was an utterly formidable force to be reckoned with at close range with my arsenal. Many of Fu's clones, and even Chomei herself, were on the receiving end of the drain which led to many of them dispelling. Biju chakra was not pleasant to forcefully drain, that I can tell you. The corrosive nature of demonic chakra could be tempered when willingly given, but my method had the harsh energy circulating through my system.

This instinctual understanding of chakra transference led me to better grasping my own chakra output, and I discovered how to pull in the ambient chakra that I naturally gave off. Chakra dampening, the kind that jounin use to hide their presence. It was akin to throwing shades of varying thickness over a lamp, or kind of a mix between controlling one's emotions and clenching your core muscles. A truly odd feeling. Fu helped me test it until I could bring myself down to genin levels with five hearts. Then, I taught the same technique to her. Our intelligence and clones made the learning process swift, and I turned my final area of focus to ninjutsu.

I found that by swapping to hearts of appropriate affinities and then practicing jutsus, I gained proficiency much quicker. Even when I switched back to other hearts, I was still able to utilize them fairly well. Thanks to my assimilated memories, several came incredibly naturally. While water was my original proficiency and remained strong, earth became my main focus.

It was a pretty melancholic mood in our house on the last day before we returned to Konoha. We were packing up everything we owned, after all.

Fu dug through the kitchen, pulling out a stack of dishes. Everything was clean, we'd eaten dinner two hours ago. "Blue or red scroll?"

I peered over from where I was sealing away the dining table. "Red. We have plenty of dishes already."

We were separating them into two categories with some industrial-sized storage scrolls. Red would be scrolls we would leave behind. If anyone looked inside them, it would certainly appear that we'd intended to move to a new home. The blue scrolls were things we were taking with us, the ones we'd use to start our new life with. We worked our way from the upper floor and basement inwards to the main floor, and were finishing up with the living room and dining room. Roughly half our clothes, toiletries, food, and similar amenities went to red. The furniture was also going into red.

"The couch goes in blue," Fu declared.

Well, most of it.

"And the VCR, and the movies, and the TV."

I went to seal it away, but Fu stopped me.

She took out her camera from her back storage seal. "Can we get… one more picture of us together here?"

"Of course," I agreed with a smile.

We flopped down on the couch, Fu draped the knitted blanket over us, and held the camera up. We looked into it and smiled as it clicked. She tucked it back away, but didn't get up from the couch. I could smell the shift in her emotions, sudden and drastic. Tears welled up in her amber eyes, unbidden. A wave of emotion came over me as well, and I suddenly felt a bit choked up too.

This was my home. Where I'd spent almost every day of my new life, where I'd learned and grown so much, where my grandfather lived and died, where Fu and I made so many memories. I had no idea if we'd ever see it again. Even so, I looked down at the girl in my arms, and I knew that my new home was coming with me.

So I gave a smile, and repeated the phrase I'd said in this same spot countless times before.

"Do you want to watch a movie?"

Fu pushed her head against my chest and nodded, sniffling. Like always, my threads reached out and put something in. The act so familiar and comforting that it barely required thought. The ritual soothed our aching hearts. I didn't need any prompting to stick in another movie after the first one ended. I felt Fu's body relaxing and knew we weren't going anywhere. The packing could be finished in the morning.

"...Ito?" she said quietly.

"Yes?"

"I love you."

I looked down at her sweet, caring face, and she stared back at me. My answer came without hesitation.

"I love you, Fu."

I leaned in and kissed her forehead. She settled in against my chest, and we fell asleep there.

---

If Konoha seemed like a bustling metropolis before, it was a city-wide county fair now. People were crammed in shoulder-to-shoulder as vendors hawked their wares from every shop window. People of all shapes and sizes in fashions from around the elemental nations conversed about the tournament, bookies stationed outside the colosseum.

After we'd dropped off our belongings at the hotel, and before heading into the stadium, we stopped to visit Lee in the hospital. He was still laid up from his massive injuries.

"Fu-san! Ito-san! Torio-san! Norinaga-san! I am most happy to see you all again!" He greeted from his hospital bed.

Guy smiled at us. "Don't you have to report for the final exam soon?"

Fu waved a hand. "We've got an hour, plenty of time. We just wanted to check in on Lee-san, see how he was doing." She smiled and gestured to me. "And, well, we got you a gift."

I walked forward and handed him three wrapped gifts, which he stared at for a moment, then tore into with his good arm. They were entitled Neuromuscular and Deep Tissue Massage, The Science of Muscle Recovery, and Among the Shadows: The Jounin's Guide to Stealth. "I copied these from my family's library, they're written by experts in their fields. And when you recover, I think these will help you a lot. It should make all of your training more efficient and make you an even stronger ninja." The Science of Muscle Recovery was actually authored by Tsunade Senju herself.

The boy let manly tears flow freely, as did his sensei. They took note of my utter confidence that his return to active duty was inevitable. "That you would think of me even when you were no doubt very busy this past month! Thank you, my friends!"

"This… this is what it means to be true comrades!" Guy stated with his eyes closed, one fist shaking. "Lee, we'll read those books every day until you're back on your feet!"

"Guy-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Guy-sensei!"

"Lee!"

Given Lee's position, he couldn't exactly give the man a hug, but Guy's hand on his shoulder was still plenty expressive.

They went on like this for a moment, then remembered we were here. Guy turned to us. "Right. Well, I'm planning to bring Lee to watch the exams later, when the nurses will let him out. Hopefully we'll see your match, Fu-san!"

Fu grinned, but there was a tinge of nervousness to it. "I hope so. We'd better get going, but we'll see you later!"

They gave us cheerful farewells, and we left the building.

We got to the colosseum and split off. Fu went to join the other competitors on the ground level while the rest of us found a spot in the stands high above. It was shortly after that the last finalists, which was all of team 7, entered the arena. The proctor, Genma, made some kind of comment about standing tall before the audience, since they all perked up slightly and looked at the crowds, which erupted into cheers. We who are about to die, salute. I chuckled at the grim thought.

Genma announced the start of the third exam, and announced the first fighters, which were Naruto and Neji. The others went up to the competitor's box, and the anticipation grew as the two genin stared each other down; one with a smirk, the other resolved.

"You are fated to lose, just like my failure of a cousin."

"I think you're about to eat those words."

"Let the match begin!"

The blond boy wasted no time in leaping back, even as Neji remained where he was, stance at the ready. He spawned five shadow clones, which all drew shuriken and spread out to half-circle the Hyuuga. As one, they threw the shuriken, which were cloned with a jutsu, and suddenly Neji had a lot of metal heading towards him.

The older boy probably hadn't wanted to bust it out quite yet, but under the incoming onslaught he didn't have much of a choice. He activated his kaiten and blew away the projectiles. Naruto didn't let up, digging out more and more thrown weapons from his pouches and keeping Neji firmly on the defensive. I approved of the strategy - he'd effectively turned it into a battle of chakra exhaustion with his shuriken and kunai cloning jutsu versus Neji's rotation. Even if they had cost the same amount of chakra, Naruto would win that battle by his nature. As it was, there was no way the Hyuuga would win.

He clearly knew it, as he managed to make an opening under the attack and dodge through a barrage to charge one of the clones. Neji, being the veteran and student of a taijutsu master, should have instantly taken out the clone. However, it soon became clear that Naruto had undergone a serious taijutsu regimen, and his clone managed to hold his own for a fair while the others simply continued their throwing and made the melee a running fight. Neji managed to redirect one of the clone's punches so that he fell into the way of the weapons and dispelled. He had to activate his kaiten again to present an opening, and repeat the process with the other clones. Each time, he got more haggard and took more strikes from the clones.

Finally, after the last one was dispelled, Neji stood tall and glared at the real Naruto from across the field. Naruto had barely broken a sweat, and with all that chakra returning to him as his clones dispelled, looked ripe as a daisy compared to the pale-eyed boy's clearly fatigued expression. It seemed he didn't fully grasp that though, as he started talking.

"A few clones and some kunai? Is that the only trick you have? You can't beat me, Naruto, and you know it. Fate has decreed I shall be the victor here."

"Oh, why don't you shut up?" Naruto shot back. "Why are you always ranting about fate? Just fight, you idiot."

Neji scowled, got angry, then launched into the explanation of how truly great ninja were born, not made, and that you couldn't rise above your station in life. He emphasized the point by revealing his cursed seal on his forehead and detailing his clan's terrible policies and his own tragic backstory.

Personally, I agreed with a lot of what Neji said, if not the spirit of it. Naruto had an absurd amount of advantages and boosts due to the circumstances of his birth and life. Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, as well as all the other Indra and Asura reincarnates were incredibly powerful by birth. Most of the victors of this world had luck to help them out. Hell; if I hadn't been born to my family, I never would've ever been able to learn and use the Jiongu. It was Naruto who punctuated the important thing, though.

"So what?"

The blunt dismissal threw the fate-obsessed boy for a moment. "So what?!"

Naruto pointed at his opponent. "Yeah! So what? Life isn't fair, Neji. But I don't believe in fate. Whatever you have or don't have, whatever life throws at you… you can either accept it and cry about it, or you can do something to change it. You're not the only 'special' one around here, it didn't stop me," he said in reference to the seals that damned them both. "I failed the graduation exam three times, that didn't stop me. And you're not gonna stop me, either!"

His piece said, Naruto spawned a dozen clones and charged. Neji, worn out as he was, couldn't effectively defend himself and took hits quickly. He resorted to using his signature rotation jutsu to knock them away, but it was just what Naruto had been waiting for. As the jutsu wound down, he leapt from above and planted his sandal in Neji's temple.

The Hyuuga went down hard, tumbling for a few feet before landing face up. Still conscious, but unable to move, Genma waited a moment before turning. "The winner is Naruto Uzumaki!"

Naruto grinned and waved at the audience. They burst into applause, and I joined in. Naruto won without spawning too many clones, without resorting to the kyuubi, played to his advantages, and used minimum (for him, anyways) effort to remain fresh for his next fight. It was a very good sign for his maturity and wisdom as a ninja.

Genma moved on to the next match, which was Shino vs. Kankuro. The puppeteer forfeited without fighting, which drew a lot of jeering from the crowd. He didn't want to reveal too much before the invasion began.

Temari made a flashy entrance down to the arena, while Shikamaru dithered over resigning before capitulating to the screaming from Ino. Their fight proceeded as expected, which was long and drawn out and tactical. Temari's largest mistake was playing the game that Shikamaru set up instead of flipping the board. She gave him too much time to think and plan and didn't take the initiative. It all ended with the spiky-haired boy forfeiting, lying about how low his chakra was.

Shortly before the end of that match, I left to go wish Fu good luck and "visit the bathroom." In my human form, the stress hormones and other mental/physical chemical reactions had my nerves strung tight.

Fu met me in a stairwell on her way down. She saw me coming, signaled that we should be clear, and we shared a fierce hug.

[I'll be watching the whole time,] I told her. [Just be ready. And careful.]

[I know.]

I spawned two shadow clones, which transformed into spiders that stuck to the back of Fu's boots. They would crawl onto the walls as she went onto the field and watch the battle. Then, I made a water clone of myself. Finally, I transformed into an older civilian and dampened my chakra down as low as it could go. Fu looked at me and nodded, steeling herself, and continued down to the arena.

My water clone escorted me to one of the exits as I activated my sharingan. "Ah, thank you ninja-san, these hallways can be a real maze."

"No problem, sir, sorry you can't stay to watch," my clone replied. "Hope you feel better soon!" He turned and went back into the stands.

I walked away towards the village, restraining the urge to run until I was sure I was out of sight of any onlookers. Then I ducked into a side alley, sensed for anyone near, and rapidly shifted myself to jiongu. Finally, I shed my skin and gear, and dove into the ground.

I made sure to go deep, not wanting to risk even the slightest vibration reaching the surface level. Using the photographic memories I'd just taken, I retraced my path back to deep under the arena. I actually came across the sewer pipes that were right below it. I carved a hole to the system from above, and situated myself under the earth in the fighting area. With my chakra senses, it was easy enough to pick up the two jinchuriki's positions. Hearts were integrated into my body - I was going to need the chakra.

Then, I felt the change. I don't know what exactly happened, but Gaara's unstable chakra started to leak out. I felt the presence of a few other ninja enter the area, and suddenly they left with him. That's when my clone popped. The genjutsu fell. The hokage was held hostage. It had begun.

I tunneled straight up as Fu's wind jutsu filled the area with dust, some wind blades thrown out towards the retreating ninjas. Visibility in the ring was reduced to zero, and my threads grabbed her and pulled her down into the sewer system. I spawned over a dozen mud and water clones under various sound ninja disguises.

[This way,] I signaled Fu as we sprinted at top speed down the narrow tunnel.

[Weren't we going to go on the surface?] she quickly returned.

[Found a better location.]

Nearly a kilometer away, we reached an unoccupied ante room, some kind of office for maintenance. I wasted no time and drew out one of my medical-grade storage seals. Inside were two bodies - Mine and Fu's. I'd created them over the month break, perfect in nearly every detail. I'd even applied the copy of Fu's biju seal onto the inert body. There were only two problems - our eyes were still like mine, as I still couldn't fix the appearance, and we both were lacking hearts. Mine was quickly remedied by tearing out my original heart and implanting it, replacing it with another one of mine. Fu's… wouldn't be needed.

I used my Jiongu to get their blood moving and restore all the usual signs of life to them, then hung them with ninja wire to the ceiling. Out of my storage seals came dozens and dozens of explosive tags, planted all around the room, sticking one directly to each of our heads and two to Fu's upper torso. Fu walked over to me and I slid my form over hers, covering her body with my threads. Finally, I burrowed us slightly through the wall in preparation for an exit while forming a wall of bone between us and the rest of the room. It took less than two minutes.

"Ready?" I asked.

I felt Fu nod, then focus. I concentrated on dampening the chakra as it built, then Fu gasped out "Now."

A colossal explosion shook us, and no doubt the entire sewer system as the room collapsed in a fire and force. They probably felt it clearly on the surface. Simultaneously, Fu expelled an extreme burst of demonic chakra, Chomei pumping it out as hard as she could. The moment she stopped, she fainted. The corrosive chakra being forced through her in such volume was too much strain on her.

I dug us a trench through the ground, using earth jutsu to improve the speed and seal it behind us to leave no trace. I was propelling us in the direction of the walls and nearest gate, and it took many minutes to reach it. The walls were designed to prevent such entrance or exit, and extended deep into the earth, so I pushed us upwards. I took an instant to form a human henge over my large form, then emerged.

The streets were chaos - ninjas fighting, civilians running and screaming, bodies strewn about, buildings destroyed or on fire. If anyone noticed a random huge person suddenly popping out of an alleyway, they had other things to worry about.

The gate I arrived at had already been breached, but the surrounding ninjas were of no matter for me. I was running on full jiongu, pumping all of my chakra towards enhancing my speed. I barreled through whatever ninjas tried to get in my way and kept running - none could even try to pursue.

And so I ran away from a city under siege, one I could have helped save and defend. I ran from the opportunity to consume many people and bloodlines. I ran from the other half of our team, who would be attacked by my water clone pretending to be another sound ninja that replaced me. I ran from people who would grieve for mine and Fu's deaths. I ran from all of the main characters. I ran from all of our responsibilities. I ran away from the life we had.

And I never looked back.

---

Heyo, folks.

I didn't want you readers to worry that this story had fallen victim to the Chunin Exam trap - I.E. where a fic gets to the chunin exams and then gets abandoned because they can't figure out how to progress such a pivotal arc with the changes they've made. That's why I powered through this all in one chapter, even if it's a bit on the long side.

I was thinking this chapter ending kind of felt like it would be a natural point to end the whole story, even with the dangling threads. Not to worry - this is not the end.

Lots of reviews came in on the last chapter, which was nice to see. Plenty of replies I gave out. Incidentally, I really like to reply to reviews but I can't if you have private messaging disabled. Not sure why you would do that, but if you'd like a response make sure you have it enabled.

In response to a particularly big guest review, I have to remind you that the Naruto universe is, canonically, incredibly stupid and illogical. So asking "What would any rational country do" is a question best kept far away from this franchise. I flat-out disagree with most of your other arguments, so I suppose this just isn't the fic for you mate.

This chapter will also spawn some interesting reviews, so to preemptively respond to a few:

Yes, this was the plan all along and I've thought out the consequences. Whether or not it was good enough to fool everyone will be a mystery for later chapters.

Yes, with Sasuke gone a few things would theoretically change during the invasion, but whatever you're thinking of probably turned out pretty canonically due to other circumstances as part of those changes.

Yes, it would've been rad for Fu and Ito to hang around Konoha, but they've got other plans. Maybe someone could write a Fanfic fanfic and diverge from my story at that point and make a new one, but I'm not doing that here.

Can't promise when I'll update this one again; I plowed through this chapter pretty hard which wore me out, and I've been meaning to get around to writing chapter 20 of Legend of the Brothers' Fury. Plus, I've been entertaining the idea of starting a Teen Titans/DC fic that I really dig the concept of.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and be sure to review.

-Waki