I didn't sleep well that night. And by not sleeping well, I mean I didn't sleep at all. Even listening to Ino's steady breathing didn't relax me enough to sleep. I spent most of the night in my mind palace, trying to find any info on the upcoming exams. Unfortunately, the file had been corrupted, meaning I could only catch a few glimpses.

I remembered Gaara and his bloodlust. I remembered the invasion. HIs siblings' names were Temari and Kankuro.

I remembered Orochimaru.

I remembered him doing something to Sasuke that led to everything else going wrong.

Throwing down the damaged file with disgust, I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes. I knew bits and pieces of what was coming. I couldn't even remember how Orochimaru got into the chūnin exams in the first place. Would it be enough to affect things? Was it enough?

I had remembered so much of Wave and yeah, I had changed things, but I'd also ruined others further. Sasuke didn't have his Sharingan, and didn't he need that for Chidori? Naruto's seal was fully intact. He wouldn't be able to stand up to Gaara without the Kyuubi, no matter how much I hated it.

Come on, Inoko, you made your bed, now it's time to lie in it. I messed up a few things, yeah, but I could only move forward from here. I couldn't do anything about the seal - and there was nothing that was going to make me try - but maybe I could do something about the Sharingan.

I jumped to my feet and began making my way back up to the school. If I remembered correctly, the Sharingan needed strong emotion to activate. Didn't matter what. I frowned, pausing midstep. Maybe. Natural Sharingan activation wasn't exactly something I studied Before. For all I knew, he needed to have had miso for breakfast on a Friday in order to activate them.

Maybe I'd ask Sensei. Sensei seemed like he'd know.

A specter of a memory ran through me, already fading away before it turned the corner. I raised an eyebrow at it, then shook my head and shut the door behind me.

I opened my eyes in the darkness and sighed. Echoes of activity reached my ears. Dawn was approaching. I was still exhausted, though by all appearances I had slept all night. I sat up and stretched, restraining a yawn. Ino was still sleeping peacefully.

What if my changes lead to something worse?

I swallowed the lump in my throat before grabbing my vine embroidered robe and quietly leaving the room.

Shrugging the cotton robe on, I wandered the dark, still house. I stared into the fridge for a few moments, tried to relax on the couch, browsed books to find something interesting.

I ended up in my garden.

When we were young, Ino and I would help Dad in the greenhouses. As we got older, Dad gave us our own little plots of land in the backyard to culture with whatever plants we wanted. If I covered it with daffodils at first, that was entirely my own business. Being a small child of six, they all died within a month.

Dad just laughed at my distressed face and helped me replant new ones.

Over the years, my little plot grew larger and eventually covered nearly a quarter of the yard, enveloping Ino's initial territory. She ended up moving her plants to a greenhouse, leaving me to putter around in the yard with my flowers.

I mixed day and night bloomers, fall and spring plants, pretty much any flowering plant that caught my eye so I could have blooms year round. Now, in the silent minutes before dawn, where the night blooming flowers were beginning to close with the moon and the day blooming flowers were preparing to open up to the sun, I inhaled the perfume of my garden.

I felt some of the tension bleed from my shoulders. We were supposed to meet up with Sensei later today. Technically we were supposed to meet at eight in the morning, but knowing him, he wouldn't show up until close to noon. I should talk to him, but…

I had absolutely no idea where on earth he would be. Konoha was a big place; I couldn't exactly wander around hoping I get a ping on my chakra radar. I didn't have any convenient summons that I could use to track him down.

Tracking. Oh. I really was an idiot, wasn't I?

The Inuzuka man at the entrance to the compound gave me a friendly, if overly toothy, smile. I'd been here often enough, usually hot on Kiba's heels, to be recognized by most of the guards. The few times I didn't come here with Kiba I usually ended up leaving with him hot on my heels.

It was early yet; I stood in front of his door a bit hesitantly. A crash came from inside, along with some shouting. Footsteps running down a hall. More shouting before the door flew open and Akamaru leaped into my face. I hit the ground hard with a face full of dog.

"Oh, hey," Kiba said before hollering back into the house. "We got him, Ma!"

He pulled Akamaru off my face and offered a hand to help me up. I gave him a dead eyed stare before accepting it. Why dog. He just smirked at me, grabbed my hand, and hauled me to my feet.

"Thanks for the help; Akamaru grabbed one of Hana's shoes and wouldn't give it back." He did, in fact, have a shoe firmly clamped in his jaws and growled a little whenever Kiba's hand drifted towards it.

"You're… welcome?" I said slowly, unable to tear my eyes away from the attempted retrieval of the shoe. It was not going well. "Hey, could you do me a favor?"

"Yeah, sure, what's up? Do me and Akamaru need to go do some dynamic marking on someone?" I blinked in surprise, and while I was definitely going to keep them in mind…

"Nah, I need some tracking help." Kiba stopped tugging on the shoe and raised an eyebrow at me.

"Tracking? Why?"

"Because it's virtually impossible to find my sensei at my current skill level and I need to talk to him about something."

Kiba grinned widely. "Yeah, sure! It'll get me out of doing kata, at any rate."

"That's what you think, mister," Tsume said, standing in the doorway. "Akamaru, drop it."

Akamaru opened his mouth and let the shoe drop. Hana hopped out on one foot, swiping her sandal off the ground with a scowl.

"But Ma," Kiba whined. "I've already done them like a million times!"

"And you'll do them a million more times until you get them right!" Tsume turned her attention to where I was semi-awkwardly standing. "Hey, kiddo, whatcha need?"

"I was going to borrow Kiba to help find my sensei," I explained. Hm. Who else did I know that could track people? I thought for a moment. Yeah, I was coming up short. "But if he's busy, I can go." I could always resort back to my initial plan, though my chances of success were much lower.

"Kakashi, right?" Hana asked, both sandals firmly attached to her feet. "I have some time before I'm due at the clinic, I'll help ya."

I bowed a little and thanked her as she whistled for her dogs. By way of being Kiba's friend, I had spent a decent amount of time here growing up, and had used the Haimaru brothers as pillows more than a few times. They were so soft and friendly, what other choice did I have? I wouldn't call myself friends with their mistress, but we were friendly enough with each other.

Tsume waved goodbye before dragging Kiba back inside, Akamaru trotting at his heels. Kiba barely had time to bark a goodbye of his own.

When the Haimaru brothers were sitting in a neat row in front of Hana, she announced, "Ok, boys, we're gonna find Kakashi, ok? First one to find him gets an extra treat."

Ni barked while San wagged his tail and Ichi began excitedly sidestepping. I clenched my fist and resisted the urge to squee and pat them and tell them what good boys they were. Because they were the best boys.

Hana offered me a hand with a quick "Hop on" and then we were off, rushing through Konoha with a mixture of whooping, barking, and shunshins. I hung off Hana's back, wind tearing my hair from my braid and whipping it into my face. For one glorious, painful moment, I almost wished -

I tore my mind away from that thought. I was content where I was and wouldn't change it for anything. I pressed my face into Hana's shoulder, guilty for even thinking about half wishing to not be my father's daughter.

Ni barked and Hana took an abrupt turn towards the sound. We landed in an open street in front of some shops and lo and behold, there was Kakashi-sensei, his shopping bags on the ground forgotten as he rubbed Ni's ears fondly. Ni's tail was wagging a mile a minute, panting happily.

"Oh, hey, Hana." Ah yes, so casual, Sensei. As if you hadn't been caught practically cooing over a dog.

"Hey yourself, Kakashi," Hana greeted, slinging me down from her back. "Your kid is looking for you, so I figured I'd do her a favor and help her out."

Kakashi's eye flickered down at me for a split second before returning to Hana. "So you have. Thanks."

Hana saluted him. "No problem, Kaka man. See ya 'round!" And with that, she and Ni vanished. Shame, I wanted to at least pat him on the head once or twice.

Sensei shoved his hands in his pockets and began to walk off. I looked down at his groceries, realizing pretty quickly what he was planning. He isn't actually…. He is. This man.

I wasn't going to lie, I was very tempted to do the exact same and leave his groceries there, but well, he was already a mess of a man, someone around here had to take care of him.

With a heavy sigh, I ran back and grabbed his bags before running up to his side. "I'm not doing this again," I warned. "I'll drop them with no regrets."

Sensei hummed. "I'm sure you will."

I scowled at him. I should drop them. I really, really should.

"So," he drawled, "what brings you to me this fine morning, Inoko?"

"I wanted to talk to you before training," I explained, shifting the bags in my arms. "I figured you'd be the only person to ask."

I almost missed the sharp glance. His tone was still lighthearted as he said, "Oh? We had training today?"

Bullshit. I shot a glare at him. He eyesmiled back.

"I wanted to ask about the Sharingan." There was the faintest hitch in his step. "Specifically the activation requirements."

Sensei's voice was entirely serious now. "And why do you want to know that?"

I paused. My next words needed to be carefully chosen. "I'm worried about Sasuke," I finally said. "The chūnin exams are dangerous and I don't think we're up to par yet."

"Chūnin exams? What makes you think -"

"Don't treat me like an idiot, Sensei," I snapped, harsher than I meant to. "Please," I added in a softer voice.

Sensei stopped in his tracks. When I turned to look askance, he was giving me a thoughtful look.

"Very well," he finally said. "The chūnin exams will be tomorrow. You've probably already seen other teams arriving."

"We ran into a team from Suna," I muttered. Sensei nudged me to the right into another street. I followed him. "One of them was…"

I could still feel pinpricks down my back just remembering Gaara. I knew what was wrong with him, even as I knew it would be fixed sometime or another. Still, knowing that didn't assuage my worries he wouldn't kill me or my loved ones. He wouldn't regret or hesitate for one moment.

"There will be many people like that in our profession," Sensei said gently. "Though I've recommended you and the boys for the exams, none of you have to go through with it if you don't want to. I was planning on telling the three of you this morning."

He pulled some papers out of his kunai pouch and handed them to me, his groceries vanishing from my arms. "Fill these out and report to room three-oh-one at the Academy by four tomorrow afternoon if you decide to go through with it."

I felt nauseous just holding them. Then his hand fell roughly on my head, awkwardly giving it a little tousle. "Don't worry about it, Inoko. I'm sure you'll all do fine."

Then he vanished. Three forms. Three choices.

Slowly, I folded them with care and slid them into my pocket. Somehow I doubted Sensei was going to show up at all today after this, so I should probably go track down the boys and let them know, give them their forms. Wasn't there something else…?

Sharingan. Sharingan.

"Son of a bi-"

"I'm going to murder my sensei," Inoko announced, slamming the door open with an uncomfortably large smile. I looked up from my scroll, startled. "I'm going to eviscerate him with a rusty spoon, and then I'm turning his skull into a goblet."

Mother and I shared a look as Inoko threw herself onto the couch.

I finally took the bait. "Why?"

"Because that baaa—oooh hi, Mother, didn't see you there."

"I'm sure," she said dryly. "You were saying?"

"My buttface of a sensei decided to not tell us about the chūnin exams until the freaking day before," Inoko sighed, dropping her head back down.

"Wait, you didn't know it was coming? Asuma-sensei told us ages ago!"

Inoko lifted her head again to give me a murderous glare past her bangs. "And you didn't think to tell me?"

"I thought you knew!" I protested. Inoko sighed.

"No, I did not, sister mine. So now we have hardly any time to train, though… Sensei has been training us quite a bit harder lately, hasn't he?"

"Are you going to do it?" I asked, quickly cutting off the tight look on Mother's face. "The boys and I are."

"I don't know," Inoko sighed, rolling off the couch onto the floor. She flung an arm over her eyes. "I don't feel ready, but they do, and you have to have a three man team for the exams, and I can't hold them back or…" She trailed off, mouth turning downwards.

There was a troubled look crossing over my sister's face more and more often these days. Sometimes I asked about it, but she always just laughed me off and assured me everything was fine. It wasn't. There was something weighing heavily on her mind, and I wondered. It scared me sometimes.

"I went to the trouble of tracking him down this morning and everything," Inoko grumbled. "I ask him a question, and then I get sidetracked, and then he has the gall to hand off the responsibility of, you know, actually telling the other two about the chūnin exams. So I go find them and give them the paperwork, and of course they both react predictably, which is to go off and start training like their lives depend on it, and then I'm trying to keep them from destroying the training field and each other, which is a lot harder than you would expect."

Inoko rolled over onto her belly, peeking up at me and checking for sympathy. I nudged her with my foot.

"You're so dramatic."

"You're right, I need to become stronger before I murder my sensei."

"That's not how that works."

"Sure it is. Two there should be, no more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it."

Inoko finished with a dramatic fist in the air. I gave her a flat look. "And how are you planning to get to two? Are you going to kill Naruto and Sasuke-kun?"

"If they don't stop giving me shit I might."

"Inoko," Mother warned.

She flushed. "Sorry, Mother, it slipped out. Won't happen again."

"It better not," Mother said, placing her book down and giving us a fond if exasperated look. "I need to borrow a recipe from Setsuko. I'll be back soon."

"Fifty ryō says she's gonna be gone an hour," Inoko commented when the door shut.

"Done," I said, going back to my scroll.

I met with Naruto and Sasuke in front of the Academy at twenty till. It was… strange being back here. Had it really only been a few months? It felt longer.

The Academy had been cleared of students for the exams; I remembered how we'd all been sent on a "survival field trip" the last time Konoha held them. It had been fun. I ate a rabbit and two fish.

Anyway.

"We should keep on the downlow," I suggested once I grew close enough. "There's no telling what's lying in store for us."

Sasuke hummed in agreement and Naruto nodded hard, arms crossed.

"We still have some time, right? Plan of action aside from flying under the radar?"

"You said that you can dispel genjutsu," Sasuke said, glancing at me. "Can you sense them as well?"

"Can't dispel it if you can't detect it." I shrugged. "I can dispel genjutsu on other people as well; if either of you get caught I'll take care of you."

"Thank, Inoko!" Naruto chirped. I waved it away.

"You boys are the heavy hitters, so I'll let you guys take point in the fight, and I'll stay back for support. And Naruto, do me a favor and leave a clone or something near me so I don't give myself another concussion." Naruto laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and pointedly not looking at me.

"Let's go, then," Sasuke said, rising to his feet.

The halls were crowded, full of hopeful genin. I could feel a genjutsu tickling the edge of my senses and was instantly on guard.

"Stay close," I muttered to the boys, signing to them genjutsu - potential enemy. I was kind of surprised to see something like this already. The proctors weren't wasting any time weeding out the hopeless, were they? There was a bit of a commotion on the second floor, but the signs were all wrong. A bunch of people were crowded around a door that looked right, but…

I gripped Naruto's sleeve and closed my eyes. Counted the stairs. Only two flights, though I could have sworn we'd walked up three. I could feel Ino and her team just a floor up.

"We still need to go up a floor," I said, opening my eyes again. "Looks like we got mixed up."

"Genjutsu," Sasuke said under his breath. "Good catch."

"I'm a Yamanaka, it's in the job description."

"Ehh?" Naruto said, squinting at the sign that 'clearly' said three-oh-one. "But Inoko-chan, the sign says -"

"Come on, dobe," Sasuke sighed, grabbing his arm and dragging him behind me. I smiled to myself. Look at them, getting along so well. I relaxed a little despite myself.

We left behind Team Gai, who were still keeping up the pretense of being weaker than they were. Good plan, but best to not draw any attention to yourself at all and fly under the radar.

The real room three-oh-one was being guarded by none other than Sensei himself. "Glad to see you all made it," he said casually. "Looks like you qualify for the exams."

"Keeping up the teamwork emphasis?" I asked, feeling a nervous sort of smile twitching at the corner of my mouth. Sensei gave me an eye smile.

"Perhaps. Regardless of what happens in there, I'm very, very proud of all three of you. You've all come a long way from the little Academy students I tested a few months ago."

Naruto was practically beaming from the praise, and even Sasuke looked pleased. I couldn't fight the smile that was forcing its way onto my face, and I wasn't sure I wanted to. I felt some of the tension bleed from my body.

"Thanks, Sensei," I said, ducking my head to hide my face.

"Get in there, brats," he said fondly. "You're going to be late." Sasuke gave him an indignant look.

Right. The first stage of the exams. I took a deep breath.

"Ready, boys?"

"Yeah!" Naruto cheered. Sasuke made eye contact and nodded.

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends," I whispered under my breath. "Once more."

We pushed the doors open and stepped in.