"... and then she wouldn't let me leave for the next three hours," I grumbled, pulling grass up and dumping it in Naruto's hair as he lay on the ground in front of me.

He had collapsed there some time before, tired from sparring with Sasuke. I began to braid some of the nicer blades into his hair as Sasuke sat near us. This, in my mind, was loads better than what it used to be. Soon enough, he would be comfortable enough with us to accept physical contact, and then I could give my little duckling all of the snuggles.

All of them.

I had just about mastered tree walking at this point, living in constant soreness all over my body from building muscles to stand perpendicular to a freaking tree. If someone had told me Before how mad awesome I would become, I wouldn't have believed them.

I opened my mouth to complain of boredom, but bit my tongue after what had happened the last time I'd done that. Never again, Sensei.

Then I had an idea.

"Naruto, you wanna try something out?"

"... sure?"

I stood and dusted my pants off. This particular question was one that I had been wondering for a while, but hadn't remembered until now. Sensei had yet to dismiss us after a long afternoon of training, but I figured I had enough chakra to use the mind body switch one or two more times.

"Ok, I'm wanting to do some experiments with your shadow clones," I explained. "Namely, can I take over one with my jutsu?"

Sensei was abruptly paying a lot more attention to us both.

"Oh!" Naruto exclaimed, bouncing on his toes. "That would be super cool, dattebayo! You could lead an army of clones and hop around like a demon!" Demon. Ha.

"Exactly! So I want to see if I can possibly take over a clone." Naruto's excitement over the idea of something new was contagious. I couldn't stop grinning, granted in a maniacal manner. "Can you make like… I don't know, two or three?"

Three clones instantly popped into existence next to Naruto, identical to the original. Honestly, I was impressed that even their chakra was identical. If I hadn't seen him make them, I would have problems telling the original Naruto from the clones.

One of them was unanimously chosen to be the target of my jutsu and shoved forward. I tried hard not to laugh.

"It won't hurt," I promised, amused by him tugging on his collar and trying not to cringe before me. "You won't even know - wait a minute, could one of you be ready to catch me? I'd really rather not actually get a concussion this time." I paused at Sasuke's raised eyebrow. "Not that… I actually got a concussion last time."

A Naruto - the real one, I think - ran around and positioned himself to catch me. I took a deep breath. In. Out. In. Out.

I could feel Sensei watching me.

In. Out.

Even Sasuke seemed interested.

Out. In. Out.

I inhaled one final time and formed the hand seal, shooting forward. Leaving my body and entering only took a second, but a second was an eternity to a shinobi. A second could be the difference between who lived and who died.

Though I tried not to focus on the sensation, an out of body experience, no matter how brief, always felt really strange. Which was. Actually probably part of the reason Dad always told us to be completely committed to our target.

Right. Target. Naruto.

With normal people (aka not clones) I usually had to push a little to sit in the driver's seat, so to speak. Taking over a clone was like the seat already being mostly empty aside from some trash, maybe a back rest too. Er. This metaphor was getting a bit out of hand.

I blinked with his eyes and focused on my hands. I felt alive, thrumming with chakra. Which I suppose was fair given that shadow clones were literally made of chakra.

"Inoko, your cackling is starting to worry me," Sensei said mildly, placing his hand on my head.

"Sorry, Sensei," I said, totally not sorry. "The possibilities are endless! Assuming I automatically go back to my body when the clone dispels. And not have the connection between my body and soul forever severed, leaving my mortal form in a coma to rot while I ghost around for all eternity."

"I feel like that's a mild concern."

I shrugged. "Relatively speaking, it's a problem. Probably fixable. Maybe. I'm sure it'll be fine." I made another seal and found myself blinking my own eyes at the sky.

Naruto peered down at me, concern in his eyes. "Are you ok? You didn't lose your soul, did you?!"

I might have laughed in his face. A little. "I'm fine, Naruto, don't worry. I want to try popping a shadow clone with me in it later, but that's something I want to talk about with Dad first, and probably do it under his supervision."

"Good plan," Sensei said. He did actually look a bit relieved. Well to be fair, I would too if my student who liked to experiment with mind jutsu did something very reckless despite having a protective father.

Huh. Putting myself in perspective was weird.

"Hey, Sasuke," I drawled.

"No," he said instantly.

"I literally just want to spar. Rude." Sasuke gave me a wary look. "Pinky promise? I won't get inside your head and make you do the chicken dance."

Naruto burst out laughing at the mental image, and to be honest I was grinning too. I wouldn't make him do the chicken dance, but the macarena was fair game.

"Should I be concerned?" Mother asked when she turned around and saw my face.

"Nah," I said, grinning. I was very casually leaning on the door with blood still leaking from the cut on my eyebrow. Sasuke hovered behind me, paranoid in the way he'd been since Wave. "I just need an ice pack."

Mother raised an eyebrow before putting her tea down and rising to her feet. "Let me get the first aid kit."

I slid into her seat, beaming. "Thanks, Mom!"

"Leave my drink alone, Inoko!" she called back after a moment of thought. I scowled and put the cup down. She knew me too well at this point. Instead, I moved towards the fridge. Ooh, there's juice.

I didn't think I'd ever seen Sasuke so awkward. He looked like he'd rather bolt at the first chance he had.

"Ino's not here, by the way," I said offhandedly, rummaging around in the freezer for an ice pack. "She left for her first C-rank yesterday. She said Asuma-sensei was only waiting for the whole - well, it doesn't really matter." I peered behind the fridge door at him. He'd visibly relaxed, if only a little. "You thought my sister was here and you walked me home anyway? How sweet, Sasuke-kun~"

"I'll hit you again," he warned, not sounding too serious.

"That's fair. You want some juice or tea or anything?"

He silently shook his head. Mother bustled back in with the first aid kit and motioned for me to sit down. I removed the ice pack and let her fuss over me once again. When she'd returned from her random grocery shopping the other day, she'd come up to our room and hugged me for a very long time. Not like I was complaining, Mother gave some of the best hugs, rivaled by only maybe Akimichi Setsuko. There was something about her hugs, man.

Oddly enough, I had run into Sensei the next day and he'd given me the strangest look before vanishing. Upon further inspection, I'd found nothing but eyebags and a bit of spinach in my teeth from lunch.

Eh. He was an odd man. It was probably unrelated.

I was off track again.

Sasuke watched Mother fuss over my face a little. He didn't squirm too much when she side eyed him and asked me how exactly I'd gotten my injury, and best of all, didn't bolt once we both had our backs turned to him. It felt normal. Nice.

He eventually left after Mother finished taping my eyebrow up with a short, "See you tomorrow." I waved after him and pointedly ignored Mother's knowing smile.

I casually threw myself over the fence, giving Sasuke a nod as I landed. "Behold!" I announced.

"... what?"

I grinned brightly at him before spreading my arms wide. "Behold!"

He looked around. There was nothing of note around us. "And what, exactly, am I supposed to be 'beholding'?"

Mh. Good question. I wasn't entirely sure myself, so I shrugged, still smiling. "No clue! I woke up in a good mood and I feel good."

"That's… nice."

"Thanks!"

"Hey, Inoko," Naruto said, running up to us. "Teme. Are you ok, Inoko?"

"Never better!"

"I lied, I hate everything," I told the boys, three hours later. Sensei was still nowhere to be seen. "You guys want to help me murder our teacher? I'm sure I can convince Chōza-ji to teach us; he had a genin team, you know."

"Good plan," Naruto groaned. He flopped his head onto my shoulder. I flopped my head onto Sasuke's shoulder. And he didn't move! Didn't even protest beyond sighing. Progress.

"He's a good teacher, too, one of his students is a jōnin. I think the other two are special jōnin, he was talking about them a while back," I continued, eyes unfocused. I relaxed my senses, allowing them to drift around us. The goal was to keep a close enough eye on our surroundings so we wouldn't be taken by surprise, but relaxing enough so that I didn't look like I was watching around us.

"Plus good food, right?" Naruto asked, sliding off my shoulder and flopping onto my lap. I absently ran my hands through his hair. Kind of coarse, could use a wash.

"Yeah, he's a great cook. Definitely one of the best I know." Oh, Sensei was approaching. Taking his sweet time too. "Sensei's coming."

Naruto jumped to his feet, bristling with anger. "Took him long enough! Where is he?! I'm gonna tear him to shreds!"

"Naruto. Dial it down a little, ok? Guilt him into arriving earlier next time and then bonus ducks!"

"Never say that again," Sasuke said flatly, lightly shaking me off. Naruto took a deep breath and looked slightly less hostile.

"Exactly, like so, Naruto. Good job! Bonus ducks, Sasuke."

"I'll stab you."

"Do it, coward. Regardless, bonus ducks aside," I said. I carefully ignored Sasuke pulling out a shuriken with a tight smile. "Hi, Sensei? What's the excuse this time?"

"I got lost on the way here!"

"Seems legit." I stood and brushed my pants off as Naruto practically jumped on Kakashi. "What are we doing today?"

"How," I asked the sky. Sensei ignored me and continued to read his book. "How did something like that happen. What kind of mission was that."

Naruto groaned a little and flopped onto me for the second time today. Sasuke was looking positively singed. "Deer are evil, evil creatures."

"They're babies," I instantly retorted. I had fared the best out of us three, probably due to the fact I practically grew up around deer, though not crazy mutant carnivorous deer.

"They tried to kill us," Sasuke said incredulously.

"Nara deer are babies," I amended. One of my earlier memories was helping Shikaku feed the deer with Shikamaru. I think Ino and I had spent the night since Dad was on a mission. A fawn had come up and ate straight out of the bucket I was holding. It was very cute.

Something tickled the edge of my senses.

"We should do some training together," I said instead. "What do you think, Sensei?"

"Let's call it a day for now," Sensei said, eye tracking something in the sky. "You three can do individual training if you'd like." I looked up to see a bird circling in some sort of pattern. Jōnin summons? Odd, I couldn't think - actually never mind, I could.

Chūnin exams.

Great. I was going to die. Hopefully not literally. When I looked back at Sensei, he was gone.

"Thanks? I guess?" I scratched the back of my neck. "So… you two wanna train together?"

"What could a useless dobe like him contribute?" Sasuke scoffed. Naruto scowled and clenched his fists.

"Hey, hey, we talked about this," I protested, waving my hands. "Most people can contribute something. For example, I can contribute that that disguise is terrible; have you ever even seen a rock before in your lives?"

Sasuke and Naruto looked down to the ground as the Konohamaru Corps threw off their 'disguise'. "So, the boss's teammate managed to see through our disguise!" Konohamaru declared, folding his arms. "As I expected of the boss's teammate!"

Sasuke gave me a confused and questioning look. I shrugged a little. The girl, Mogi or something, tugged on Naruto's hand. "Come on, boss, you promised! Can you come now?"

"Nope! I'm gonna train super hard with Sasuke and Inoko and become a super strong ninja!"

Aww. How adorable, he was acknowledging Sasuke's existence in a non antagonistic way.

"But you promised to play ninja with us!" Konohamaru said. He looked a little distressed, honestly. "You promised!"

"A ninja," Sasuke said flatly. "Playing ninja."

"Yeah?" I raised an eyebrow. The Konohamaru Corps were still trying to convince Naruto to come with them.

Danger, my senses whispered to me.

"Just seems dumb," he muttered. "How are you even supposed to play, anyway?"

Waait a minute. "Sasuke," I asked with a grin, leaning in, "have you never played ninja?"

Sasuke flushed a little. "What does it matter?"

"It matters a lot! Naruto, kiddos, I have a suggestion!" They all looked at me. Sasuke seemed like he was going to bolt at any second. "We'll play ninja with you, but since we're genin, we have to use kawarimi instead of moving normally. That way we can train and Naruto can play with you like he promised. Sound good?"

The kids stared at me in shock even as Naruto's face broke open in a grin. "Yeah! You're super smart, Inoko-chan!

Death, they hissed.

"I grew up with Shika, you have to keep up somehow," I laughed. "We don't have any weapons we can use against you guys, so what about a tag system?"

"Sounds good, zombie-lady!" I winced. "Ready, set, go!"

I instantly switched with a nearby plank, yelling at Naruto, "Hey, you can only kawarimi!"

"Sorry!" he hollered, quickly switching with a scarecrow. Sasuke quickly vanished, a crate taking his place.

It was surprisingly fun. We ended up going with a point based system, limbs being one point, torso being two points, and head being five points. The Konohamaru Corps were using their paper kunai and shuriken, evening the odds if only by a little. Sasuke was in the lead with twenty six points, myself in second with twenty one, and the kids and Naruto switching up third. Naruto seemed to be more focused on being overly dramatic and spouting speeches than scoring points.

I could have sworn I saw a proper smile on Sasuke's face at one point right before he had the gall to kawarimi with me.

Of course, the fun couldn't last forever. I didn't even have time to shout out a warning before - danger danger die die die die - Konohamaru ran into someone. My stomach turned.

He was unmistakably Sunajin. From the face paint carefully applied across the bridge of his tanned nose and his cheeks, to the turban and desert robes. My eyes glanced from the Suna emblem on his amulet to what could only be one of their infamous puppets on his back.

"That hurt, punk," he growled, lifting him up by his shirt. I had a hand in my kunai pouch as I approached.

"Konohamaru!" Naruto called, running forward.

The girl next to him said something in Sunago, sounding annoyed. Her body language was tense, wary.

She was honestly beautiful. Hand embroidered scarves were wrapped around her waist and shoulders, elegant jewelry hanging from her head, neck, and wrists. They tinkled with every move she made. This was a girl who wasn't afraid to be seen, and to be honest? I respected that.

"Put him down, you big ape!" Naruto yelled. I grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back before he started an international incident.

"Enough, Naruto," I said sharply. Sasuke appeared near me, a wary expression on his face. I glanced up at their headbands, slowly enough to make sure they knew I was noticing. I gave Sasuke a look as well, trying to convey, Let me handle this. He wasn't exactly known for his social graces.

He's getting close.

"What are shinobi of Sunagakure no Sato doing here?" I asked. I swallowed. The lump in my throat was beginning to make it hard to talk.

"We're here for the chūnin exams," the girl explained. I was surprised at her lack of a strong accent. Sunago tended to be a harsher dialect of what I used to know as Japanese. She reached into her pocket, none too quickly and plenty obvious. Good to know she's preventing an incident too. She flashed her passport at us, stamped with the gatekeepers' seal.

Unbridled bloodlust. Boredom. Disinterest except in death, anyone's death. I clutched at the back of Sasuke's shirt and hoped I was doing as good of a job of keeping a straight face as I thought I was. He tensed underneath my hand.

H̦͔̭̅̇ȩ̦̞͓̯ͯ͛͊͌ͧ͠'͛͏̻̮̩̤̮͇͔͡s̷̡̡̙̟̜͈͒̒̾̈́ ͍̘̖̳̤ͣ͐̏͠ḧ̵̪̝͇ͫ̆͐e̞͖̞̰ͪ͛̂ͮ̑̒́̂́͜r̷̙͉̹ͫͤe͕̗̖̥̠̣̅̆͐̐̀͘

"Enough, Kankuro," a low, raspy voice said in a heavy accent. Was it always so hard to breathe? He said something else, but I didn't understand it. Really ought to learn another language.

Gaara of the Desert stood on the underside of a nearby tree branch, wrapped in heavy robes. The late summer heat didn't seem to bother him at all. His siblings had a much more visible reaction than I (hopefully) did. Kankuro instantly dropped Konohamaru to the ground, stammering. He sounded scared.

Gaara cut him off. His eyes were dead. The eyes are not the windows to the soul but the doors.

Kankuro instantly backed down. If it weren't for the sheer malevolence rolling off the youngest of the three, I thought I might have sensed his fear. Konohamaru and his friends cowered behind us.

Kankuro said something else with false cheer. He was shaking where he stood despite the warm weather and heavy robes.

Their sister agreed with whatever he said, sweating. Gaara shunshined between them and faced us.

He said something in Sunago. His voice was flat. Lifeless as the desert. His sister stepped forward, nervously glancing at him. "Gaara apologizes on our behalf," she said. Her hands were shaking. He barely spared a glance to his brother. "We may be early, but that doesn't excuse playing around. My brother and I are very sorry, and we promise it won't happen again." Gaara glanced at me - his eyes were so dead all I could see was death - before turning around.

"Come," he muttered, walking away. The other two followed him, hissing at each other under their breath.

"You kids should get out of here," I managed as the Suna genin turned the corner. "And s-stay away from them."

I leaned against the wall and tried to breathe. It was easier the further Gaara got away. I barely heard Naruto saying my name in a worried voice as I slid down.

"'M fine," I whispered. "G-Gaara, he's…"

Sasuke crouched in front of me, concern written across his face. "Inoko, breath before you pass out." I sucked in a breath. Naruto was rubbing my shoulders. "What's wrong with this Gaara guy?"

"Stay away from him," I said thickly. I didn't meet their eyes. "For the love of the Three, stay away from him."