SUMMARY: Ra and Tenten don't appreciate it.
Ra sighs.
She knows it was difficult but if the Sand Siblings told her earlier, her plans would be more refined.
How did they think that she, Ru and Re wouldn't support them?
Ra doesn't particularly love Konoha.
She tolerates it and it her.
Because the District is home.
There are only two reasons that she's not joining Sound in their attack:
The hassle of being a Missing Nin.
(She sounds like a Nara.)
And for Tenten, Lee, Gai and all the other relatively innocent children.
(The attackers will call them collateral damage. Ra calls it 'pointless carnage'.)
She sort of wishes that she'd said 'And?' and joined the attack.
It would have been so much simpler.
But she didn't.
And now she has to deal with it.
She is not enjoying it.
Honestly, Suna dug themselves a hole and she has to dig them out.
Why, oh, why?
Ra slumps against Kurenai.
This is why you don't become the planner.
The others would be more than happy to help.
But they know that Ra needs silence to think.
Ra still doesn't know why she is doing this.
Then she thinks of the Sand Siblings and groans again.
Great.
Temari, Kankuro and Gaara exchange bewildered gazes.
Sakura is groaning, Naruto is hugging them and Sumire is freely laughing.
They are pretty sure they can see tears in her eyes.
"Sorry," Sumire apologises.
"She uses laughter as a coping mechanism." Sakura informs.
"It's funny!"
"No, it's not."
They don't know what is going on.
Should their friends be screaming at them?
They suppose they haven't really had enough interaction with other people to know but still...
"I'm going to have to make the plan." Sakura moans.
"Yeah." Naruto chooses that moment to beam.
A plan?
"Honestly!" Sakura turns towards them with a frown on her face. "If you'd just told me a little earlier, the success rate would be higher!"
They don't know what to say.
Apparently, Sumire thinks they look reproachful enough.
(She knows they are confused.)
"Sakura, emotion is a factor."
The pink girl sighs again.
"This is all your fault." she tells the purplette.
Said girl just smiles at her.
They feel like they've missed something...
Tenten is not happy.
They have a month.
Obviously, she likes the fact that she is meant to be getting some rest time.
But she has a ruthless Sensei, a dedicated teammate and a prodigy.
At least she has other friends now.
She smiles.
It was a sudden thing but she's not too upset.
At the time, she didn't really appreciate being pulled away from refining her aim.
She swore to not come back after they conversed a little after.
But she did.
Because she likes the siblings from Suna and Team 8.
As an orphan with a part time job at a weapons shop, she doesn't have much influence.
So people don't bother talking to her.
It's Lee - Gai's heir, Neji - Hyuuga prodigy and their civilian teammate.
Tenten tries to not let it bother her.
It does.
Whenever she does something 'cool', it's which of your teammates taught you that? Or was it your sensei?
Tenten is fed up of it.
Her team and Sensei do teach her things but she teaches them things too.
It makes her angry that because she was a civilian and is a girl, they think she is lower.
So when she learns exactly which two teams made it to the Tower first, she can't help but smile.
Points for the orphans and civilians.
Neji grumbles at it.
Tenten has long since given up on translating his mumbles.
Lee is excited but also competitive.
It is a delicate balance.
Tenten thinks Lee is good at balancing.
She turns her attention back to the seal she is trying to improve.
Sumire and her are working together on some new seals.
Naruto seems somewhat interested too but Tenten doesn't think he is ever going to be at their level.
He just isn't interested enough.
Tenten understands that.
What she doesn't understand is why.
Team 8 waits patiently.
Or at least as patiently as they can.
Naruto looks around boredly.
Ru is carefully watching the other teams.
Re smiles at Tenten and Lee in greeting.
Ra is glowering at the Sand Siblings.
She isn't happy about how little notice she got.
Their stalkers are there too.
They look a little worse for wear and Ra can see there is something wrong with Duck's arm.
Bug is studying Re.
Ra wonders if he simply doesn't know how to make friends.
Kabuto's team has passed too.
They can't stop their skin from prickling whenever he gets too near.
He hasn't done anything.
Yet.
But it is better to trust their instincts and be wrong.
They can at least remedy the situation that way.
There is also an Oto team that made the cut (the ones who attacked Kabuto) but they don't really know much about them.
That will need to be fixed.
They are meant to have a month after all.
That should be enough time to do a little covert operation.
They don't want to be caught out.
They snap back to attention (they don't really care about the Hokage and they pretty much knew what he was going to say anyway) just in time to hear that there are going to be preliminaries.
Ra thinks that Hayate Gekko better be careful.
He's just added himself to her list.
But isn't he Cat's boyfriend?
Ru would be so upset...
He wins this time.
She admits this very grudgingly, in the privacy of her mind.
She opens her eyes to two smiling teammates.
What's the point of not saying anything?
Those two already know.
The privacy of her mind?
As if.
Kabuto drops out quickly.
Too quickly.
The guy has participated in six exams (or so he claims), shouldn't he be more ready by now?
It is a very suspicious move and they can't believe that no one else seems to think so.
It's not like the guy has a Genjutsu wrapped around him.
Why?
(Because no one cares about random civilian orphans. No one sees them.)
They don't have much more time to think over it because at that moment, the proctor calls something out.
"Akado Yoroi VS Uchiha Sasuke."