I'd like to apologize (not really, it was so not my fault), since I posted my last chapter I kept feeling ill off and on, then I did get pretty sick (unrelated it seems), then two weeks later I ended up in the ER followed shortly by the OR, where I got half an organ removed because it decided to grow extra bits and then one of those extra bits exploded and made my life difficult and very, very painful, followed by filling up with loads of blood. After five days of recovery (which probably wasn't enough) I went back to classes where I started and continued to play a horrible game of catch-up with school and I'm surprised I haven't gotten an ulcer with the stress. Heads-up, abdominal surgery sucks, but it could be a lot worse.

Also, this chapter is brought to you by my cat's butt. Every time I sat down to work on it he either shoved his butt in my face or put it on the keyboard. I also don't own Naruto, or any of the lyrics you may or may not recognize.

Thank you to everyone who 'did the thing.' You know, Favorite, Review, Alert. I got you all a semi-long chapter. I hope you enjoy my... hmmm... oddities. I swear there is method to this madness. Oh, and I made a companion piece 'Silver Slivers.' Check it out, it will contain things I cut, feel makes the story kinda chunky, or just plain doesn't fit. Sorry for the long note ( I did feel I had to explain my absence). Danke.


Silver Streams

Are you in Pain like me

It was Hayate coughing that woke her up that night. Abel took a brief moment to inform her that it had been, and still was, quiet by the Leaf genin. She shook off the sensation as Hayate finally acknowledged her and apologized.

"Sorry," he said, his throat rough from the hacking.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "It seems like your cough has been getting worse."

"It's probably the stress of the exams exasperating it."

"You and everyone else here," she said. She had noted yesterday when she'd returned upstairs that everyone seemed to be treading just a bit more lightly and felt just a bit more strained. Ai made a move to get up. "I'll get you some water."

Hayate waved her off, standing, "Don't bother, I'll get some myself. You go back to sleep." Ai watched him leave the room they shared, which by the way, it was far nicer on the chunin and above side of the tower. She rolled the metal rod between her hands contemplatively before laying back down. Hayate returned some time later, but didn't say anything about the fact she was still awake.

Her sleep was rough on the best of nights, usually plagued by nightmares. There wasn't much they could do about it, but Hayate tried his best to let her rest as often as he could and she frequently tried to return the favor. She lost more often than not.

The sound of sand, or perhaps dry snake skin, drags across the ground. Children giggle, shadows run and dance. Olly Olly Oxen Free. Fire rains from the sky, setting the ground ablaze. Screaming starts.

She is grabbed from behind.

Ai woke with a sharp intake of breath. Sitting up, she rubbed her head, noting that Hayate was gone. She had managed to doze off into that strange, dreaming-yet-awake stage where her dreams are more surreal than anything else.

She hated that stage.

Rolling out of bed, Ai got ready for the day. Putting on more comfortable clothes, this shirt with Irises, and that overly large – tacky – green vest.

It turned out to be completely boring day, filled with a good portion of training. Iruka had joined this time, and Abel the lazy cow he was, didn't even help her defend herself until Iruka had nearly hit her with a kunai. She'd panicked and blown it out of the air inches from her shoulder. She was surprised she hadn't gotten a shard of metal in her flesh for her trouble. Iruka apologized for the start he'd given her, but he was used to her panic explosions at this point, anyone who trained with, and knew Ai well, was.

The most exciting, and interesting, part, however, turned out to be when she was making dinner.

"Are you insane like me? Been in pain like me?" she murmured under her breath, not quite singing. "Bought a thousand ryō bottle of sake like me? Just to pour it down the drain like me?"

"Did you really?" a voice interrupted. She turned to find Kakashi standing in the doorway. "Because that seems like a huge waste. Also, I'd like the name of the person that sold to you, you're obviously underage."

"What are you doing here? Your team hasn't passed, you know." The eye smile he gave her was strained.

"Oh, just escorting a few jonin in." He moved further in, ignoring the fact that he still shouldn't be here, escorting or not, and allowing Guy and Kurenai to pass him. The two studied her briefly, with the latter giving her a gentle smile, before moving on into the room. Following at a slightly larger distance was the Sand team's sensei, Baki. He seemed thoroughly uncomfortable to be so surrounded by Leaf shinobi.

Now she felt a little embarrassed, they had probably all heard her singing to herself. At least she'd decided to drop the f-bomb from the lyrics.

"Don't burn the place down," Kakashi said as he passed her.

"I'll burn the place down if I want to," she muttered to his back. Ai glanced at the still loitering Baki. "You can have some of the food too, if you want," she added, "I get the whole 'prepare it yourself' thing, but the offer stands."

He had to practically turn to look at her due to half his face being covered. Another interesting choice in the world of shinobi fashion. He could be hiding a horrible disfigurement, Ai supposed, but with how many nasty scars she'd seen dotted around Konoha, it seemed a little strange. Then again, who was she to judge?

"And you are?" he asked

"No one of significant importance, so," Ai shrugged, "name's Ai." With that being said, she returned to the last batch of food cooking. Baki didn't say anything in return, which was fine with Ai. When she turned around with her own serving of food, she found that he had left at some point, curse ninja sneakiness, and had settled himself at a table some distance from everyone else. She went to join Hayate, who was once again sitting with Iruka. Ai paid no attention to what they talked about, only noting that it was interspersed with Hayate's coughs.

It wasn't until another presence joined them that Ai pulled herself from Lala Land. She looked up to see the dark-haired beauty that was Kurenai. Ai shifted her own eyes away from Kurenai's ruby ones. Eye contact with strangers put her off.

"You must be Ai, right?" Kurenai phrased it as a question, but Ai knew it was more of a statement than anything else, she obviously already knew the answer.

"That is what people keep calling me," Ai agreed.

"I've heard some interesting things about you." That was a good start, it usually ended with 'you're a complete nut-job.' Ai looked over to Hayate for any visual cues, but his face was blank. So blank it was like he was bored. "Hayate likes to keep you for himself, huh?" Ai blinked, looking back at Kurenai. She wore a teasing smirk as her own eyes shifted back to Ai from Hayate. "We hear rumors that Hayate took in a young girl, catch a couple glimpse of her around the village, but then he doesn't let us meet her for years."

Now it made sense, she was being nice to her. Everyone knew about Crazy Ai by now. How she talked to her metal puppets and said strange things. How she claimed to hear things around her, how walls talked. Even Iruka gave her odd looks if she slipped up and talked to Abel in front of him.

"I'm not good at meeting people."

"You seem to be doing fine to me." Kurenai's smile was soft and gentle.

Ai bit back her 'you just don't know me very well then.'

"I look forward to seeing more of you around." Ai was pretty sure by that point her face showed nothing but disbelief. With a departing nod to Hayate, Kurenai left the room. Ai rounded on Hayate.

"What was that about?" she asked him, voice heavily laden with suspicion.

"I suppose Kurenai is under the impression that you are here as a test to see if you are qualified to become a shinobi.'

"And why would she be under that impression? Did she not get the same 'she is never becoming a ninja' memo that you and I got?"

"Despite you unwavering conviction, not everyone has heard those ridiculous rumors that you are crazy."

"I'll have to work harder then." Hayate sighed. Or at least it was a sigh to Ai. "And don't be so optimistic, everyone has heard I'm crazy. Even Iruka thinks I'm crazy."

"I've never said that," said ninja interrupted. She turned and stared at him, his reluctance to meet and maintain eye contact meant that he had at least thought it as some time or another.

Point proven she looked back at Hayate.

"Don't you have something better to do?" He asked.

"No."

"Then find something."

Ai huffed, but got up and left anyway.

※※※※※

The rest of the days passed uneventfully, Ai greeted two more teams, another Leaf one, Team Ten, and the one from Sound, who were obnoxiously ringing and echoing in her head, like someone was tapping a metal rod on a metal fence every few seconds, letting the echoing ring almost die out before striking once more to renew the sound. It seemed they were the ones that had beat up Lee earlier that week.

Ai was quickly relearning that she hated people and being around them.

She had a few more disturbing dreams, which mostly consisted of fire and burning buildings, and Hayate kept coughing. His response to her worry was to merely state that he'd make sure to take better care after the exam.

People still remained on edge, Kakashi still hadn't left even though his team wasn't at the tower, and Ai wasn't told why. Any questions she asked were answered with 'you don't need to concern yourself with it,' which was polite speak for 'you aren't allowed to know, it's ninja business.' She got the feeling that something had gone wrong – obviously – but what exactly, beside the murder of a Grass team, was kept from her, but the itch on the back of her neck got a lot worse after the Sound team arrived.

The only thing she knew was that she might need to tail someone after the exam. She was a prime choice, one of a few people in the village that didn't have to follow physically to observe another.

Oddly, Abel reported the Hokage arriving a full twenty-four hours before the exam was to end. The Hokage immediately retreated to the highest level of the tower, where even she couldn't go and where Anko seemed to still be residing. It was strange, because surely, he had better things to do in the wait time than hang around the tower for a day.

Ai was beginning to feel that between all the things piling up and everyone else acting as if things were normal, but were actually hyper alert for anything strange, she was becoming paranoid.

It was late into the evening, the end of the exam was looming and Ai, procrastinating, was lounging on the highest floor she could get, which wasn't really that high, and staring down to the lower floors. She watched a few of the genin wander on the other side, going about their new nightly rituals, when she spotted Gaara as far up as he could get as well. He was sitting on the wall, leaning against a pillar, appearing to be doing the same as her to the best of his abilities, and angle.

She continued to study him and he must have felt like he was being watched because his head turned up and his eyes began to scan her side of the tower. Gaara seemed to possess some preternatural sense, for it didn't take him long to focus in on her spot and even though she knew he couldn't see her, she felt like he was making eye contact.

From there she could feel her chakra, despite the suppressor, boiling in agitation as white static filled her ears and mind.

His little whispers, love me, love me. That's all I ask for, love me, love me. He battered his tiny fist to feel something. Wondered what it was like to touch and feel something.

Ai jerk back into awareness with a gasp and a jerk, pulling away from the wall and Gaara's staring eyes. A presence shifted and Ai finally noticed another person with her.

Dread filled her as she recognized Baki. He was standing just beside where she had been a moment before, his hand outstretched. Had he touched her? Or had his presence and attempt alone been enough to pull her out of her waking daze? Either were not a pleasant situation. He didn't look shocked enough for the first option to be likely and it's not like she saw anything that said a transference took place. Perhaps the suppressor blocked it? Or, again, he hadn't even touched her and the resulting, and very bad, incident had been avoided. Those thoughts proved slightly calming and she released the breath she'd been holding.

She blinked at him and they both stood there awkwardly looking at each other in the hallway.

"You seemed lost," he stated diplomatically, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, that happens, I black out and talk to myself." If she could assign any adjective to Baki's face right then, it might would have been 'appalled.' "I hear voices from time to time, which means there is a pretty high probability that I'm crazy." The adjective shifted to 'concerned.' For his own welfare, not hers. "Just ignore anything I said."

After another few moments of awkwardness, Baki nodded his head once, just slightly, to her and beat a retreat from her presence. Once he was out of sight, Ai sighed, releasing the tension built up in her shoulders. With any luck the 'I'm crazy' speech would keep him from looking any deeper into what had happened.

When Ai was sure he was gone, she groaned and rubbed at her face. With a fair bit of trepidation, she crept back to the edge and looked over. Gaara was gone, which was, irrationally, a relief. "When it rains, it pours," she muttered to herself, "can't get a break in this stupid, cursed tower."

Running her hand through her hair, Ai headed downstairs in search of Hayate. She found him in quiet conversation with Kakashi, so she waited patiently out of earshot. They wrapped it up quickly soon after her arrival and Hayate waved her over. She waited a moment for Kakashi to leave, but when he didn't, she continued, uncomfortably.

"There… may have been an incident."

"What sort of incident?" So that was where she'd learned that look from.

"You say that like I started a war or something." She could feel waves of amusement coming off of the silver-haired ninja nearby, so she sent him a glare. Hayate, however, wasn't as amused and his look told her to explain. "You know that Sand jonin? Baki?" Ai didn't know Hayate could look less amused, but he could and did. "I may have told him I was crazy."

He didn't seem happy with her words, but tension eased out of his shoulders at her confession. "Sometimes I wish you'd stop telling people you were crazy."

"Only sometimes?"

"Did anything happen other than that?" He chose to ignore her comment.

Ai gave side eyes to the still lingering Kakashi, but if Hayate wasn't worried about him hearing, she supposed she shouldn't be either. It didn't make it any more comfortable, however. "Nothing really, I was staring out over the tower, watching the genin, I had just spotted Gaara when I blacked out, from there I possibly said some weird things with the Sand jonin present. Then I told him I was crazy," Ai shrugged a little bit.

Hayate closed the short distance between them, putting his arm around her back and settling a hand on her shoulder. The light pressure held a lot of comfort. "It'll be fine. The Chunin Exam will be over soon, then it will all be sorted out." The last part almost sounded like something he'd been telling himself. Ai nodded anyway.

"I'll get the names of the passing teams sorted into the RNG before I call it a night." Both ninja were looking at her questioningly, Kakashi more so than Hayate, as the latter was more used to her oddities. "I'm calling it that for 'random name generator,' but it actually stands for random number gen –" she cut herself off feeling heat growing in her face at their looks. Hayate's bemused, while Kakashi's was perplexed. "I'm just going to shut up and leave now." Ai pulled herself out from under Hayate's arm, but realized his intentions too late to dodge the ruffling of her hair.

He smiled at her as she left, but she couldn't help but feel that his eyes looked very tired.

The next morning was a bit of a surprise for her. An obnoxious surprise that she could have done without, seeing as she already woke up late and was running behind schedule.

"What do you mean two more teams showed up?"

The spiky-haired ninja grinned. "I mean, that two more teams showed up this morning. They barely got here in time, but they still managed it." He swung a folder at her that he probably would have hit her with if she hadn't put her hands up to catch it instead. "So, you better go plug them in before the preliminaries actually start. You're already late."

"I know that," Ai yanked the folder the rest of the way out of his hand. The annoying man didn't stop grinning.

"Do you really have to antagonize her?" She heard his partner ask as she left.

"But she's just so fun to rile up. You better run if you want to get there in time! And don't forget your vest!"

Ai sent him a dirty look as she went through the door, but paused just barely past it. "Ah, dammit!" She really didn't have her vest. Hayate was going to give her that disappointed, pissed off look he perfected to guilt trip her. She took off running.

Despite going as fast as she dared, she was still late. Ai shouldered one of the large doors open as she worked the mic into her ear, folder tucked against her chest as she tried to fix her slipping vest.

Before her all the teams of passing genin had assembled in columns of their squads. Their backs were to her, but facing her was the gathered jonin sensei, a few of the chunin from the tower, the proctors of the pervious exams, and the Hokage. In front of them stood Hayate, his eyes on her.

There was that look.

"Sorry," she mouthed at him, maintaining a sedate jog as she passed to the left of the group of genin. It was at that moment, as she once again fixed her vest, that she slipped. Ai hit the ground and the papers in the folder scattered in a whoosh.

No one laughed at least, except that one a-hole named Kankuro. She knew it was him because she recognized his voice saying, "Aw, man, that looks like it hurt," in amusement. He was right, of course, if he meant the blow to her pride hurt.

Hinata broke out of her line and arrived as Ai got to her knees. "Let me help," she murmured quietly as she began collecting papers. Ai was already flicking her hand out, twitching her fingers to send strings of chakra flying. The only good news of today, so far, was that she didn't need to wear her suppressor. Her chakra practically lunged from her as it suctioned onto the loose papers Hinata had yet to grab. The papers came flying back to her with a jerk of her wrist and a curl of her fingers.

It wasn't a neat pile, but it was a pile she could live with. She scrambled to her feet, Hinata doing the same, but more elegantly. "Thank you," Ai acknowledged quietly, accepting the gathered papers from her. She spotted a small, shy smile in response from the girl before Ai high-tailed it to the front, fixing the papers as best she could as she went.

She didn't make eye contact with any of the others as she passed to the back of the room and through another hidden door in the wall by the elbow of the statue. As she was taking a set of stairs that brought her to the control room, she heard Anko's voice in her ear. "Gravity still working, Ai?" Her face was so red, but she refused to rise to it.

Instead, she shoved the door to the control room open, inside Abel was waiting for her. There were also two ninja working inside and lining one of the walls were the banks of a computer.

"All this garbage just to pull a pair of names out of a hat," Ai thought bitterly. "If they would just let me –"

"Are those the names I need?" A voice interrupted her. He was an older ninja, brown-haired, and bespectacled, with his headband worn as a bandana. Mawa-something, though Ai was pretty sure he didn't work directly under Ibiki.

"In there somewhere, yeah," Ai handed over the rumpled folder. He looked at it thoroughly unimpressed with her if his narrowed eyes were anything to go by. "It was Team Seven and Team…" she wasn't actually sure if they had a number, "whatever Kabuto is on, if that helps."

His jaw tightened, but he turned his spinning chair back around and started typing. "You're not needed here," he told her brusquely.

"Ah, but I'm supposed to –"

"Not today," the ninja told her in the same tone, his eyes meeting hers through the reflection on the screen. "There's been a change of plans, go out and enjoy the preliminaries." He then proceeded to ignore her, which she made a face at.

"Whatever," she hissed in her mind, "Exactly what I want to watch. A bunch of kids beating each other up." Lacking anything better to do, though, she made her way out, taking a different path that would let her out on the second level to watch the matches.

"Stay here Abel," she held her hand out in a 'stay' command. Abel shivered his metal bones in acknowledgement and Ai pushed open the hidden door. She'd already closed the door before she noticed who was on this side of the observation decks. Directly to her left was the Sand Village team.

Kankuro's look he gave Ai at her arrival was just an unenthused as the one she gave him, but seeing as it would probably take a scene of unrivaled proportions to get one of them to leave, they let their dislike for the other slide. She sidled a few feet away, settling into a lean on the railing. She felt a soft prod at her chakra, someone was testing it and it boiled in response.

The intruding one creaked and clacked, like wood chimes rattling against each other. It also felt like a warmed stone on her skin. Ai turned and gave Kankuro a dirty look, he looked away and the chakra prod withdrew. She moved her attention to the arena one floor lower.

Below was the beginning set-up of a fight brewing between Sasuke and one of Kabuto's teammates. Kakashi obviously said something to his dark-haired student before ushering his other two students away and up the stairs of the opposite observation deck.

The moment Hayate cleared the match to start, the two fighters went at each other. In a swift bout of taijutsu, Sasuke had his opponent on the ground, who soon showed his unique talent of draining chakra. The fight continued in that vein and Ai found herself losing focus until about a minute later into the fight when Sasuke had kicked his opponent into the air and was shadowing below him. That was when she spotted something crawling across his skin.

"The hell?" she had just enough time to think before it crawled away and vanished. Then Sasuke beat his opponent into the ground. Literally. Winning the match. The defeated boy was taken away via stretcher by a trio of medics, they were followed moments later by Kakashi carting off an exhausted and chakra-drained Uchiha.

It was when the next two contestants had been called and made their way down to the arena, that something strange happened. The creepy sensei of the Sound team vanished in a puff and Anko's voice called in her ear over her mic, as Hayate called a halt to the match before it had even begun, not even a second after he was gone.

"This match will be temporarily postponed," he told the two genin.

"What, why?" The one from Sound protested.

"Ai!" Anko shouted in her ear causing her to wince.

"You don't need to shout," she snapped, putting her hand to hear ear.

"The man that just vanished in a body flicker, he's the one we want you to tail."

"Now?"

"Yes, now!" she was shouting again.

"All right, all right." Ai patted her pocket and swore quietly to herself, she didn't have her channeling rod. She glanced down at the railing she was leaning on. "Well, it'll work." She looked down to her left. "Hands off the railing," she shouted down the line, "or I swear to God, I'll send a bolt of lightning through it." She didn't possess an ounce of lightning affinity, but they didn't know that and it turned out the only one that her threat applied to was Kankuro, who sent her the filthiest look before taking a step back.

She pulled the tie at her belt, loosening the pouch attached there. Ai grabbed the bottom of it and swung out, the contents, three hundred small spheres scattered in the wake of the arc. Just as gravity grabbed full hold and began pulling them down, Ai struck her metal band ring hard against the railing. As the sound rang out, she channeled her chakra into the railing, activating the spheres. Ai twitched her fingers and struck the metal once more with her ring. This time it was echoed by the spheres, which snapped open, revealing themselves to be small dragonflies, barely an inch long. With the third strike, Ai closed her eyes and tuned her chakra to the same frequency, joining in silently to the hum of her bug's wings.

Kankuro swore quietly under his breath as they began to spread throughout the room. Ai let them roam in and out between people, catching odd flashes of the room's occupants as she directed a few to fill the place the Sound teacher recently vacated, telling them to pick up the vestiges of his chakra.

It wasn't easy, the others kept picking up on Gaara's overpowering chakra due to his close proximity to her. She pushed, catching the vaguest sense of it.

Old, dry parchment. Fragile, snakeskin, bleached and baked too long in the sun. It felt odd to her, leaving a bad taste in her mind. She sent it out to the rest. "Find the source," she commanded. The dragonflies swarmed, racing towards the ventilation ducts.

Ai gasped as a sharp pain lanced up her hand and pierced her chest. The shifting vision of the room jerked disturbingly. White static filled her ears.

Tonight, I'm so alone, this sorrow takes a hold. The voice was silenced as everything changed.

Crying, it was always there, in the back of their minds. There is only one thing that can heal a wounded heart. It's love, Gaara. Eight small forms kneeling on the ground wept and screamed. The burning buildings around them cast dark shadows, twisted and bent. Go away, Freak! A taller shadow marched before the children, it raised its arm. Why, why me? Why is it always me? Kunai shot forward, sand rushed to his defense. Eight gunshots sounded, slow, meaningful. It was always eight. Always. Yashamaru. I've always hated you, Gaara. There was so much pain. Betrayal. Hatred. Love only yourself. You were never loved, Gaara. Never. The buildings burned, fire rained from the sky, erasing every trace of what once was there. But she was alive, she'd survived. Something burned through her veins, a raging heat. It killed the others, they died coughing blood as their bodies turned to dust. I will no longer love anyone else. I am alone. I am all that matters.

Ai's awareness finally managed to surface, to fight her way above the tumultuous ocean of sand. There was so much pain, pushing all directly into her head, right above her left eye. Drilling into her brain. She could feel their chakra mixing, fighting like two beasts, claws and teeth. You were never loved. Never. Ai grabbed, twisted, and snapped.

Blackness swept in.

※※※※※

Kankuro didn't have a clue about what was going on. One moment that girl was demanding and pushy. Scattering and controlling hundreds of tiny, metal bugs and the next she gasped, yanking her hand away from the railing as if it had burned her. The metal bugs poured from the air, pinging and sprinkling everywhere making a sound like a short, heavy rainfall.

She stumbled back into the wall, clutching her head. He moved forward, arms out showing he meant no harm. "Hey, you all right?" When she lifted her head, she wasn't looking at him, he didn't think she heard his words at all. She stared past him, at another, and he had a pretty good idea of whom.

Glancing back, he saw Gaara, still facing forward, but slowly withdrawing his hand from the railing. His brother stared at the appendage, deliberately flexing it. "Oh God, what has he done now?"

When he looked back, her blue eyes hadn't left his brother, but an alarming change had occurred. Macabre tears of red ran down her cheeks and her breathing became worryingly uneven. Baki was at his side now.

Something struck with a dull thud on the other side of the wall.

"Tonight, I'm so alone," she started, "this sorrow takes a hold. Don't leave me, it's so cold." Her hands, which had been covering bleeding ears, slid up into her hair, leaving behind streaks of blood. Her knuckled went white as they clutched at her head, her body slowly sliding down the wall.

The thing on the other side, stuck harder and he heard a whirring sound start up. It began to sound as if something was scratching at the wall.

"We need a medic over here!" Baki's voice echoed loud in the room, cutting across the idle conversations that had just started. The proctor was there in a second, pushing off the railing to reach the girl.

"Ai," he called, crouching in front of her.

"That was her name? Love?" His mind struggled to find something to normalize this bizarre situation.

"Slipping through the cracks, falling to the depths, can I ever go back?" The girl, Ai, cried, blood still rolling down her cheeks, she was sounding more hysterical. The proctor's hands wrapped around her wrists, giving a gentle tug, but when her hands didn't release their death grip on her hair Kankuro felt a sharp spike of chakra from the man, her fingers loosened and he pulled them down from her head.

"Ai, you need to breathe," he commanded.

She obviously didn't hear anything he said, but she did close her eyes, tilting her head down. "Dreaming of the way it used to be, can you hear me?" By the last word, she was shouting. The medics arrived then, two men running up the stairs and skidding to a halt at her form. As one began to inspect her, chakra gathered in his hands, Ai began to struggle and the medic barely dodged a kick to his knee.

Her hands fought against the proctor's reaching for her head again, but only making it to her neck, where they tried to claw in and gain purchase.

The second medic joined in and they attempted to lay out the fighting girl. Kankuro backed away to the railing as he felt her chakra spike, fighting against the three men as well. Something above their heads popped. He looked up, it had sounded like a lightbulb exploding, but there was nothing there. The clawing at the wall intensified, the whirring growing louder. Whatever was on the other side slammed against the wall again.

"Put her under," the proctor snapped.

The medic not trying to hold her still, lunged for her head. He placed two of his fingers against her temple and with a burst of chakra, Ai stopped struggling. Her hands were removed from her throat and placed on either side of her. The medic that had put her to sleep, placed a hand on her chest and another on her head.

Under his care, her breathing evened out. Once done, he looked at the proctor. "She's stable for now, but we need to take her to the hospital." A third medic had arrived at some point with another ninja. The medic laid out the stretcher and Ai was moved onto it. The three quickly lifted her and made their way down the stairs. As they lifted her, something clinked on the floor not far from him. It was a necklace, sporting an odd gem that glittered and looked at if it glowed with its own light. He shifted and used a chakra string to pull it to him. He closed his hand around it, but no one seemed to notice his questionable acquisition.

The second ninja leaned forward and Kankuro, in the prime spot, heard a quick whispered, "I'll go with her," before the brown-haired ninja retreated, following the medics down the stairs. The proctor watched them go, but movement in Kankuro's peripheral caught his attention. He looked at his brother, who had turned his head to watch the medics exit from the room with the girl. Gaara's eyes narrowed, studying them and he flexed his fist once more.

"Do you know what happened?" the proctor turned and asked Baki, who shook his head.

"No, she was fine. Until she wasn't." The proctor's jaw tightened, but he didn't say anything more. He turned away, pulling at one of his pockets on his vest, a thin scroll slid out into his hand as he vaulted over the rail.

He moved to the middle of the room, opening the scroll and calling to the two waiting contestants. "If you have anything metal you don't wish to lose, I suggest you hold onto it." The proctor crouched, bit his thumb, and swept the bleeding digit across the ink.

Kankuro didn't feel anything, but the Sound ninja below twitched as the metal dragonflies, which had returned to being spheres rolled toward the scroll. As the first one hit it vanished in a puff and as more continued to collect the small puffs became a stream. Once they all seemed to have been acquired, the scroll was rolled up and returned to its vest pocket.

The proctor strode to the front of the room and called a start to the match.

Looking down, Kankuro opened his hand to study the gem. It looked like half a yin-yang and swirled in shifting colors or red, blue, and green. It was strange. He closed his fist around it and deposited the piece of jewelry into his pocket.

This whole show was turning into a mess.


Songs in order of appearance:

Gasoline - Halsey

Monster - Meg & Dia

Falling Inside the Black - Skillet