(A/N) Okay the following is what Edosuke's team mates (Shima and Maru) looked like during the chuunin exam.

(Yoshiboo Maru, fourteen, quiet and observant it is not in his nature to start things but to finish them. At 5'5 he's not a very startling presence but then again he isn't exactly king of munchkin land either. Looks: Birds nest black hair with a reddish sheen to it; he is slightly pale and resembles a certain red headed gourd carrying boy from the desert (Minus one blood engraved tattoo). Black t-shirt, white-ish blue vest, and dark blue pants. Kiri hitai-ate tied on his right bicep.

Scaryu Shima while the same age as Maru she has the usual traits of the Scaryu clan; 6'3 loud, obnoxious, hyper, her hair runs through every shade of red, orange and yellow making it look like her head is on fire, basically an Amazon warrior looking girl. White t-shirt with long sleeve fishnet shirt underneath, cut off light blue shorts Kiri hitai-ate belted around her waist.)

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"We were just children… still are in fact.

All I remember from the day he found me is that there had been a fire in our village and I'd blacked out from smoke inhalation, then when I awoke I was in his arms and I was safe. He trained me. He molded me. And then... He forgot about me.

Oh it was nothing sudden, and I was alone for a long time after that but… oddly I feel no ill will towards them. One was my master, my sensei, and the other was a fellow student, my peer, but not only that… my love. With all my heart I loved him. Sadly he devoted his life to sensei and it was that devotion which made him superior. Soon, I suppose, I adored my fellow student more so then my sensei; which led to problems. My training fell to a steady halt as sensei focused more and more upon helping my fellow to become strong. To become his perfect tool.

I probably could've aided , my sensei better… but… After the little 'accident' I was suffering from severe chakra depletion. It took a majority of Seikatsu and my own chakra stores to simply keep me alive. I became a liability.

Finally… I just left. I tried to slip off quietly in the night, unnoticed and such. But, he'd advanced so far, my peer, he caught up to me and though he seemed sad to see me leave, agreed that it was best. It wasn't that my affection was unreturned, it's that Zabuza sensei had saved him from a fate worse then my own. But at the last time I saw Haku he gave me one of his needles with an inscription on it and a string through it. I'll never forget, when he tied the string around my neck he kissed my forehead

"Don't cry. We'll meet again someday."

Those words still echo in my mind.

But what hurt the most was that both Haku-chan and Zabuza sensei died. I never got to say goodbye. Somehow I knew that when he gave me the needle that that was it. I never said goodbye. Not back then. I remember clearly what I had said…

"Haku, I won't say goodbye, because I know we'll be together again. Once your's and Sensei's dreams are fulfilled then I won't be in your way and I can come back."

Whether naivety or blind hope I don't know but… as I stood before their graves with only Haku-chan's needle and fond memories of the both of them… I didn't cry. I couldn't cry. I wouldn't cry.

I had been with them for six years. Six long years that are now little more then a blur of training, blood and sweat.

As the moon waned in the sky I had unscrewed the top of Haku-chan's needle and in it I placed soil from Haku-chan and Zabuza sensei's graves.

"I will find your murderer Haku-chan." As I stood I re-screwed the top of the needle and tucked it back into my shirt.

"Edosuke… let's go." It was Maru accompanied by his ever present smell of fresh water.

"Of course." In a blur we were gone leaving two graves in the moon light


It was the next day that we arrived in Konohagakure for the chuunin examines. That's when we first saw them, when I first saw him.

Shima and I were sitting a top a rooftop eating lunch we got from Ichi- something… good noodles, mediocre coffee. Maru had wandered off somewhere leaving a twelve year old me and a fourteen year old Shima to our own devices for entertainment. Never very smart.

But we were eating and observing some natives interact. It was rather comical, a snobby little kid with a long scarf had collided into a guy in a black outfit with what looked like a mummy on his back and was about to get his ass kicked.

"D'you think we should you know… do something?" Shima asked shoveling the still steaming noodles into her mouth as the little blonde haired leaf nin started freaking out and charged the guy holding the kid.

"Naw… sensei told us not to involve ourselves with anybody because that would humanize them and then we might feel regretful if we have to kill them." I responded paraphrasing Roku-sensei to the best of my memory. The blonde one was easily flipped and landed on his ass. "Besides this is kinda funny." She shrugged slightly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. Suddenly a rock flashed by and hit the face painted nin with an audible 'smack'. Attention was diverted to the tree the projectile had come from.

"Can you see anybody Ed-chan?" Shima asked squinting and leaning forward.

"See what?" Both Shima and I startled at the quiet voice.

"God dam-" Before Shima could go on an hour long screaming rampage about how annoying his sneaky habit was, I interjected.

"A person in that tree nailed the big guy." As attention was returned to the scene a few buildings away in the street two other guys appeared.

"Kyaaa! That boy is HOT!" Shima cawed ogling the dark haired boy as if she'd like nothing more then to stuff money down his pants. My eyes were on the other boy however… the red head…

"Maru… who is that?" I asked looking between the black haired boy behind me to the redheaded one in front. Aside from the eyes, hair color and 'ai' tattoo the two boys looked pretty much the same. (well clothes too but that's a given, I mean come on someone from Kiri isn't gonna dress the same as a person from Suna.) A soft growl emerged from Maru's throat.

"Those… the red head, the blonde girl, and the big guy in black… they're my cousins…"

"Daaaaang… you would look much hotter with red hair Maru." Shima said casting a sideways glance at the fourteen year old.

"Shut up." He snarled turning on his heel and walking to the opposite end of the roof. "Get off your asses, we have to turn in our forms." He snapped stepping off the roof and dropping out of view. I cast Shima a look that said 'you-are-the-biggest-dumbass-in-the-known-universe'.

"What'd I do?"

"Shima…" I took in a sharp breathe as if being in her presence elicited pain into my forehead. "You know, far better then I do, that Maru has some 'issues' with his father and his father's side of the family. You know… his fathers older brother, his uncle, is the Kazekage, the one who banished him from Sunagakure, the one who killed his dad… ringing any bells here?" The exceptionally tall girl scratched her head with a nervous laugh.

"Oh yeah… that. But why would he-"

"You basically told Maru, the guy your family prearranged for you to marry, that his cousin, a boy born from a man he absolutely despises, looks a lot more attractive then he does. You're his fiancé for crying out loud! The least you could do is wait until he's out of hearing range before you start shouting out all your perverted little thoughts." Her golden colored eyes widened slightly.

"Oops…"

"Yeah… big oops. I'd suggest apologizing to him."

She nodded and stood up abruptly, towering far above me, dropped her noodle bowl and vaulted over the rooftop. Lucky for me I had (have) good reflexes and was able to catch her noodles before the were ruined.


"Interesting turn out this year. Hey check it out… aren't those the same kids we saw when we first got here?" Shima asked inclining her head towards the front of the room. From our vantage point in the back left corner (chosen so we could view the competition) we could see the three leaf nins from earlier. Shima shifted so that she was closer to me and bent down slightly. "He's even cuter up close." She whispered into my ear so that her now brooding husband-to-be couldn't hear her.

"He does have the whole 'dark-anti-hero-but-still-a-good-guy' vibe to him." As I agreed my eyes flickered to Maru, whose attention wasn't in the same space as us. Adjusting my gaze to follow his I spied with my little eye three people who we'd also seen on our first day in Konohagakure; Maru's estranged cousins. The shorter, teal eyed, red head, tattooed version of Maru, the sandy haired girl with a big ass fan around her waist, and the guy in the black out fit with the hat that kind of tufted making him look like he had cat ears. "Hey Shima… check it out." I nodded towards the three sand nins and Shima's golden brown eyes went wide.

"Where are you going?" Maru asked snapping out of his glaring contest with the back of his cousins' head to bark at Shima.

"I'm gonna go say hi! It's important that I get to know your family." She said flashing him a smile and moving just out of his reach.

"Don't!" He hissed scrambling over two chairs and a rather lanky leaf nin to reach her. But it was all in vain as Shima slid into the crowd towards the sand nins. I watched this all with calculated amusement. I couldn't let Maru see that I found this frickin hilarious, but I couldn't let the humor go by without proper appraisal. Sadly it all ended as the exam proctors arrived in a rather showy fashion and brought the fun to a screeching halt.

My seat was on the left side near the front of the room between this guy with huge eyebrows and this sound nin girl with long black hair. Maru was way in the very back right corner and Shima was stuck in the second desk right next to the window.

As the main proctor guy began explaining the rules of the exam I found myself getting more and more confused so I decided to wake up Seikatsu.

Hey... do you find this odd?

Ne? What's odd?

Well listen…

I repeated the rules to her and waited.

Well? Doesn't it seem odd to you?

Shaddup. I'm thinking here.

I propped my elbows on the desk, interlaced my fingers and leaned my forehead against them so it would appear as if I were deep in thought. (Which wasn't entirely a false image to portray.) About twenty, maybe thirty minutes into the exam Seikatsu finally responded.

Well I'm done thinking about it.

And…?

I dunno.

I really wanted to scream out loud at that point… but that would've been… stupid. So I settled for screaming at my own personal demon crane.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'I dunno'? I thought you were like old and wise and shit!

Wisdom comes from experience, not age.

... I really hate you right now.

I could feel the bird smirking.

I can still help you out kiddo.

Oh?

Yes. Let's have a little looksie at the questions.

Being ancient, highly intelligent and logical and such the questions (which could've been written in Spanish for all intent and purposes because I suck at decoding stuff) on the paper were the merest of equations to her. She began rattling on and on about the distance formula, mass, velocity, acceleration and basically rolled Physical Science, Geometry, Calculus, Chemistry, Algebra and something about A squared and B squared into one long ass speech until I forced her to stop by inducing pain upon myself .

Can you sum all that up into like… a few sentences?

Seikatsu made a noise of rage.

Just close your eyes, put a pencil to the paper and let me do it okay?

As requested, I relinquished control of my body to the bird demon.

Now normally when a demon vessel relinquishes control to their demon, said demon pops out and raises all kinds of Hell. Not me. I'm lucky. At about the age of eight or so I was ambushed by grass nins and chased all over a forest. I was chased into this cliff side and the entire area had been booby trapped with several more grass nins waiting and hiding. Somehow two of them managed to get behind me and a third one pushed me through a line of razor wire the other two had been holding (thus the severing) and my torso toppled over the cliff. Seikatsu saved me, if there hadn't been a river at the bottom of the cliff… well I got very lucky.

It takes up about half of the bird's chakra to keep everything below my bellybutton in a solidified state. But it's because of all the chakra she spends keeping me alive that we can be in control of my body in tandem. Though I'm proud to say that I can kick back into control at my leisure.

All done.

What about the last question?

Did you read the last question Ed? Did you?

Ugh… Don't worry about it… personally I'd be more concerned with Shima.

You're right… we need to help her. Any Ideas?

The bird was smirking and I allowed her to execute her little plan. I watched it all happening like a movie; she brought my thumb up and put it between my lips and spit on the pad of it. With the same calculated slowness she lowered my hand the rubbed the spit along the bottom of the table. I could feel her pushing the spit along the underside of the table, past the other people and then down the leg of the desk to the floor. The spit collected together into a bead where it weaved it's way across the floor avoided feet, loose clothing, desk and chair legs until it finally reached Shima's desk where it twisted it's way up until it attached itself to the underside of the desk. It continued moving until the little ball of spit was directly in front of Shima. Moving very slowly as to not freak her out it rolled up the front edge of the desk and onto her paper. Shima's eyes widened at first but then they returned to normal. I guess Shima understood what was going on because she dipped the tip of her pencil into the spit and allowed Seikatsu to guide her pencil across the paper.

In honesty I didn't know then and I still don't know now why the bird is so… so… involved with stuff like this. I mean you'd think she'd have better things to do with her time then helping a couple of kids out with their tests. But then again there is very little the bird demon can do without the aid of massive quantities of water or maybe she was just bored.

When the blonde kid started yelling about him not giving up and not being underestimated and stuff (I wasn't really listening) and could feel Seikatsu laughing (It was really contagious, but lucky for me I didn't explode laughing.) It was very shortly after that, that I could feel Seikatsu somewhere between banging her head on the walls of my mind and rolling around on the floor laughing.

Oh damn it! I just freakin got it… There was a pause as I heard the proctor start talking about something and then he informed everyone that they passed.

I fucking hate humans… Oh don't pout. That sneaky little bastard, I wasted perfectly good chakra getting the answers to your roost mate and it doesn't even matter! I swear to God next full moon that sonnuvabitch better be nowhere near a water source otherwise everything within a frickin mile of him is gonna be ripped out of the fucking ground!

Before she could start ranting about flooding Konohagakure for 'daring' to breed the man, some crazy bitch flew through the window. I was struck speechless, but Seikatsu was still in control and she was a lot more paranoid then me. Though she didn't leap to our feet, every muscle in my body was thoroughly tensed and I felt her reach out to every water container in the room and every water pipe within a twenty foot radius. But once it became obvious the building wasn't under attack she relaxed, a bit.


"So… we got five days in the forest. Do you two want to screw around or can we get this over with?" Maru asked as we waited in line to turn in our consent forms. He looked at me as we spoke so I knew he was talking about me and Seikatsu as opposed Shima and I.

"Meh. I really don't care." Our very tall companion said arching her back like a cat and popping what sounded like every joint in her body. Seikatsu shrugged seeing as one, I was to lazy to take back control and two, if she spoke there was a good chance the grass genins in front of us would've crapped themselves. (Seikatsu's voice has that effect on people who aren't used to hearing a demon voice not mixed with the demon vessel's voice. Not her fault really just a side effect of being demon I guess.) We were the last team to receive our scrolls (Heaven scroll woot!) and Seikatsu being Seikatsu took the scroll and shoved it into my pants where it was immediately absorbed into the water of my thigh.

We chose a gate near the river, for obvious reasons, and made very little effort to hide our position. Maru and Shima stood by impassively as Seikatsu had my body submerged waist deep in the water with my head bowed forward and my eyes closed. Seikatsu was seeking; using the fact that my lower body is what it is to meld with the water and link it directly to my brain so that my eye sight basically became the river.

"It runs right to the tower. All we have to do is find somebody with the earth scroll and take it then we're set." Seikatsu informed my 'roost mates' opening my eyes halfway. "I get to kill them." She informed the broody one and his tall counterpart. The broody one made an annoyed noise but nodded whereas the tall one simply grinned and nodded.


The first team we (Seikatsu and I) killed had been from grass and were, in fact, the ones who had been standing in front of us in the line up. Their deaths were gory but Seikatsu had the good grace to make them all very painless. Not quick, definitely not quick, but painless. They had a Heaven scroll. The second team we killed was from leaf, they also had a Heaven scroll. (Which we found on the first person we killed and that had pissed Seikatsu off very much so that the other two died very slowly and very painfully.) The third team, the leaf genins, they had the Earth scroll but by then Seikatsu was in so much of a whirl from the blood that it didn't matter. Everything had been a blur of greens, browns, blues, and reds. By the time I fully came back to my senses and in control of my body I was sitting slumped forward drenched in blood and meaty gristle that had one been a heart? A lung maybe? Seikatsu was satisfied and retreated into my subconscious for a nap, I was exhausted and ready to vomit, Shima was kind enough to assist me with bathing while Maru scouted the area.

"Do you enjoy it when Seikatsu does that?" Shima asked picking through my hair like a baboon and removing shreds of the leaf nins innards from my hair. I shivered and shook my head. It was a complete lie. The shiver was from excitement, adrenaline and ecstasy were coursing through my body, I always got a rise out of Seikatsu's killings. Which in itself is strange because I positively abhor killing people. I only shook my head because… because I didn't want her to think of me as a monster. It was fine if she hated the crane but… I didn't want her to hate me. Selfish eh? We were silent as she helped me wash the grime from my body.

I know that on some level Shima and Maru fear Seikatsu and fear me for harboring Seikatsu. But they know that she would never hurt them. But they're smart; they know not to push their luck with it.

The rest of the trip was silent. They fought these grotesquely large bugs because… well partly because they wanted to and partly because I was just to damned tired from Seikatsu's reign over my body to do a damn thing. Sadly I collapsed before we reached the tower, now it wouldn't have been that bad but Shima caught me, overbalanced, and her leg bone was, more or less, shattered from the impact with which we hit the ground. I suppose it's our own fault for enjoying the way the world kind of blurs beneath you when your traveling as fast as you can in the tree tops. Alas Seikatsu was still too weak to completely heal Shima, thus I was to weak to heal Shima and Maru doesn't even know how to properly apply a band aid so… we were disqualified and called back to Kirigakure."


I blinked once, twice, thrice, and a fourth time still unsure as to what I was seeing. Then the two brilliant green orbs blinked and I realized (vaguely) that my head was on Gaara's lap in a fashion similar to how I'd let him rest his head on my lap not so long ago. I blinked again. The sky above was still dark but growing lighter around the edges, very close to dawn.

"You talk in your sleep. A lot."

"What'd I talk about?"

"Same thing I did… failed chuunin exam."

I blinked several more times and sat up.

"Uwah… God damn it… my head…" I complained, mostly to the bird, and cradled my head that was currently dealing with a rabid migraine. "Sorry…" I mutter shifting around so that I could see him while still cradling my pounding forehead.

"Why didn't you tell me about your demon?"

"I did."

"I mean sooner." Mild annoyance was slowly filtering into his tone.

"You never asked."

"It's not something you run around asking every person you meet. That's something you should tell people." Full blown annoyance had now integrated into his tone.

"Well now you know… shouldn't we get back to Suna?" I placed one hand on the ground and pushed my butt up into the air. One hand still clung to my head the other was buried in the sand to prevent myself from falling into the sky. Having clarified that I would not leave the Earths gravity field I pushed up with my hands and managed to stand completely vertical. I exhaled with a 'woo' sound and finally managed to stop my arms from pin wheeling. "Let's go what are you waiting for?" I asked bracing my legs to start running and shooting him a rather flippant grin. He looked at me like I owed him money or something, shook his head, and got to his feet with two thirds less theatrics then I did. The first few minutes were silent but something was gnawing at my mind like an angry beaver and I broke the solitude.

"Gaara-kun… I have a question about last night." Had it really only been last night? He nodded slowly and I inhaled before continuing so that my words would come out with my exhale. Which they did. "When you were back in control of Shukaku, right before that messenger guy knocked, would you really have…?" My exhalation ended and I cursed the blush I felt slinking across my cheeks. His eyes went wide, obviously he thought I was going to ask about our little fight. Gaara opened his mouth, closed it, and looked away with the tiniest blush on his cheeks.

Awwwwh… He's all shy! Hug him! Do it now!

Will you shut up? God damn it I hate it when you drink all that blood and get tipsy.

She giggled.

He's looooking at you…

Naturally I looked at him and he looked away with the slight blush still on his cheeks. I smiled and had to fight down the very strong urge from Seikatsu to pounce on him and cover him in kisses and hugs.

Must not pounce must not pounce must not po-

Do it! Pounce on him and squeeze and hug him! Tickle him too… I bet he's ticklish. You should tickle his di-

ENOUGH OUT OF YOU!

Though the crane was silent she sent me an image of me pantsing Gaara and 'tickling' his special parts which made me blush and grin. The rest of the trip back was filled with shy glances between Gaara and me, slight blushes when we caught each other looking, and Seikatsu running a porn show of things I should do to Gaara through my head. (I was smiling against my will mind you.) We bolted over the sun baked rooftops of Sunagakure (then again everything in Hidden Sand is sun baked…) and didn't stop until we landed at the gates outside of the Kazekage's official business and living center.

Woohoo! We won!

Huh? Won what?

The race.

Uhm… We weren't racing…

We got to the gates before he did. We won. Let's celebrate with a healthy round of horizontal tango with the loser.

With those words she sent images of me riding Gaara like a rodeo horse which made me blush and smirk. The smirk was short lived as a very familiar ninja greeted Gaara and I just inside the building.

"Shima-chan… what are you doing here?"


Hey! This one took awhile to crank out eh? Well not as long as the other one but… eh. I've read some good stories, been attempting to hook up video game systems to my T.V. My brother moved out taking the Xbox, Gamecube, DS, PS2, and MY gameboy with him, leaving me with the N64 (Oldie), Sega Genesis (Classice), Super Nintendo (Old School baby) and NES ( Mega Old School, for those of you who don't know or remember; it is a twenty year old game system that STILL works. Which is kinda funny because my friends PS2 died on him after like… two years I think.) But anyway his leaving meant that he took a majority of the cables with him and the T.V remote. (I lost mine a few years back and his works for mine to so yeah…) So that's my excuse for this thing taking as long as it did. That and I recently acquired a life! Yes! My friend has been taking me to parties and such recently which is really funny but I won't bore you with the details…

To more important things…

As you may (or may not) have noticed Seikatsu's personality is like a friggin rollercoaster. At one point I decided she'd be motherly but these two parts of my brain got into a fist fight over it and something got slaughtered so Seikatsu's just going to be all over the place. But I'll be nice and give valid (cough) Reasons for the changes and such but a few things will not change.

She will always be motherly (to a point)

She will always be mild to spicy on the horniness chart.

She's a demon so there is bloodlust and losing her mind during said bloodlust.

And finally… she's centuries upon centuries old and has spent the past hundred years trapped inside of demon vessels (I'll touch on that in more detail later.) which I'd think tends to grate against ones sanity at some point

So those I my explanation/excuses for Seikatsu going from : (Blah and motherly) to ) (Evil blood letting bitchoid) to (.)/ (Bouncy bouncy!).

Finally…

WHAT do I have to do to get some fargon reviews? Dress in drag and do the hula?

Review Got Damn it!