Hey all, thanks for the reviews, much appreciated. Its all good I guess, hope you all like this chapter. Nothing much else to say.

Part 2.2: Foreseen and Unforeseen

Naruto hastily followed Gai through the cold thicket of the forest. The rushing of the icy river was long behind him now as he made his way to the camp clearing. 'Allies?' he thought, 'what could Kakashi and Gai-sensei have been talking about.' He continued on a few paces behind Gai. It looked to be pretty close to nightfall around here, but Naruto really could no longer tell what time it was. The sky seemed to be enveloped with dark clouds that hung constantly overhead; it was a stark contrast to the usual sunny skies of Konoha. It still was pretty windy and cold today although no snow fell. As they made their way through the thicket, clumps of the white stuff fell from the tops of trees to hit Naruto on the head. He scowled at the forest, 'Seems like everything's against be today," he thought.

They finally arrived at the clearing and Naruto looked forward in legitimate shock. He actually rubbed his eyes to ensure he was seeing things correctly.

Along with their usual group, another, much smaller group, had joined up with them. By the way their camp was set up, they had just arrived. Fires were beginning to get started and food was slowly being cooked over them. Ninjas bearing the insignia of the Hidden Sand village stood huddled around the fires, trying to keep warm. They seemed to be very out of place here, amidst the snow and cold weather. 'If its Hidden Sand, I guess their own climate must be very different,' Naruto thought. He observed the campsite.

There were many new faces here he did not recognize; it looked to be about fifteen total genin to compliment their own twenty-four or so. He looked around the campsite, expecting to see the likes of Gaara, whom he hadn't seen ever since their battle at the first Chuunin exam. He had heard stories from Lee of Gaara helping him defeat the strong sound-nin Naruto had left him with. He looked around to see that Gai and Kakashi were both entering what looked to be a makeshift tent. It was pretty tall, and its figure whipped about in the wind. It looked like a fire was emanating from the middle of it. Naruto carefully made his way over to it, trying carefully to step over any genin that were in his way. He finally made it to the curtain and pulled it back slightly to peek inside.

One side of the tent contained Tsunade, accompanied by Gai and Kakashi on either side of her. On the opposite side contained Gaara's team from the first chuunin exam along with their Jounin sensei. Temari was wearing a dark purple skirt along with a long sleeved, brown coat; her large fan strapped to her back. She was fidgeting around attempting to stand still in the tent either out of apprehension or the weather itself. Kankuro stood next to chuckling slightly as he watched his sister react to the cold; which elicited an elbow to the ribs from Temari. He had what looked like two mummies tied to his back; they were about 5 feet in length and wrapped in tight bandages. Gaara stood on the other side of their sensei, standing stock still, his arms crossed diagonally on his chest. His eyes stared bullets into Tsunade; either the cold did not bother him, or he did not show it. He merely glanced off into the distance unblinkingly. However, Naruto noticed his gaze shift slightly so that it looked like he was staring at Naruto. Their Jounin stood in front of all of them; Naruto noticed it was the same man who he had seen with them in the first Chuunin exam; he never did know his name. He wore the traditional sand Jounin attire, complete with a tan vest and a dark black undersuit. A white turban covered his head and half of his face. He bowed deeply to Tsunade who quickly returned the gesture.

"Its good to see you again," said Tsunade very cordially. Gai and Kakashi bowed with her in unison. Kankuro and Temari exchanged the gestures as well, but Gaara simply stood unmoving, staring at Tsunade. "I was wondering if we could talk in...private."

"Of course," replied the sand Jounin. He nodded his head towards the door, beckoning for the three sand-nins behind him to leave. Temari and Kankuro gave one final bow before going, but Gaara simply turned and left through the door.

Naruto backed up to the side as Gaara came through. However, Gaara kept walking towards the middle of the sand encampment. Either he had not seen Naruto, or did not bother to notice him. Temari and Kankuro each gave a slight wave to Naruto, which he returned as they left.

"That means you too Naruto," came a deep voice from inside the tent. Naruto froze wide-eyed. 'How did Gai-sensei notice me?' he thought. He scowled at the tent and gave it the bird before going back into the forest to catch breakfast for his group.

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Gai allowed himself a slight laugh as he saw the outline of Naruto through the tent leave to go back into the forest. The Jounin eyed the three remaining and finally said, "Are they going to stay as well?"

"I won't be, as I have nothing new to add to this conversation," replied Gai, "And anyways, it's almost time for Lee's most passionate training regiment," to which he added with a whooping-crane pose, complete with ocean background.

The sand Jounin gazed at Gai with a very confused expression. Gai then gave his usual good-guy pose and left the tent.

Tsunade sighed, 'Dammit Gai, you could at least try to not act like some freak once in a while,' she thought. She regained her composure and took a seat in a chair behind her, Kakashi standing to one side. "So," she added very friendly, "How are things going on in the Wind Country Baki?"

Baki crossed his arms and looked upward as if reminiscing the current situation. "Its pretty chaotic right now," he finally said, "The death of the Kazekage has left a pretty big power gap in the Wind Nation. Right now, the lords of the country are trying to determine exactly how to replace him. Until then, the Lord of Wind will be governing over the country. I'm here acting as a diplomat from the Hidden Sand in hopes of getting help from the Hidden Cloud."

Tsunade crossed her legs and put one hand on her chin. Her voice turned very solemn, "You've heard about the exam then?"

Baki nodded slightly. "We've heard of the Raikage giving amnesty to the Nation of Sound," he said. "Unfortunately we're as much in the dark as you are. Why he's doing this or what his motives are we're not sure. I very much doubt that the Raikage would do this for peaceful purposes."

"Agreed," replied Tsunade, "But that begs the question, why exactly is he doing this?"

Baki simply shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. There was a dark silence between them for a while until the Jounin finally spoke. "We have something else we need to discuss as well."

Tsunade rose an eyebrow, "Oh, what else?" she said.

Baki continued, "About four months ago after our assistance in your mission to rescue the rouge Leaf nin," Tsunade looked downtrodden at this comment, but continued to listen to the Jounin, "we sent Temari's team to investigate certain events in the Thunder Nation."

"Wait," interrupted Tsunade, "Temari's team?"

"Yes," replied Baki, "she was promoted to a Chuunin shortly after the first examination. She did technically win the match," he added jokingly. Tsunade allowed herself to chuckle at this; she had heard stories of Shikamaru's forfeit when it looked like he was about to win. "I'm sorry," she added hastily, "please continue."

Baki nodded, "You see, our sources tell us that shortly after your cease-fire with the Hidden Cloud ten years ago, many of the smaller villages outlining the Thunder capital were depleted of their usual ninja escorts and thus opened themselves up to bandit attacks and the like. In response to this, five or so villages formed their own militia of ninjas to protect themselves. The Raikage demanded that they cease these activities as they undermined his authority. Tensions mounted between the villages and the Hidden Cloud until a full-scale rebellion with ten total villages took place against the Hidden Cloud. This went on for nearly another ten years, as negotiations between the Lord of Thunder, who supported the villagers' right to arm themselves, and the Raikage, who believed that this kind of behavior would only divide the nation, grew worse. Things grew increasingly poor and a full scale civil-war was thought to soon follow."

Tsunade listened intently, this was information she could not afford to disregard; however, she wondered how the sand had gotten so close into Thunder territory. She put the thought in the back of her mind and continued to listen.

"Therefore," continued Baki, "we sent Temari's team of Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro into the Thunder Nation to investigate these claims. If they were true, we could use it as a leverage point in which to force a treaty with the Hidden Cloud."

Finally, Tsunade spoke, "What did they find there?"

Baki looked down at the ground, his expression somber, "Nothing," he finally said.

"Nothing," replied Tsunade, "did they find the rebelling villages; maybe they searched the wrong area."

"That's not what I mean," replied Baki, "They found the villages, or more so, they found the piles of debris and carcasses that were the villages."

Tsunade took in a sharp intake of breath in shock. Her eyes widened but she maintained her composure. Even Kakashi looked slightly taken aback. "Did the Raikage attack them?" she asked.

Baki's visible eye looked directly at Tsunade, "We're not sure. Because we're only getting the details from a team rather than having actually seen it ourselves, it's hard to fully comprehend what happened. Anyway, they arrived there and checked out the village. Whatever had originally been there was decimated, wood and stone were broken down to rubble, and any lodgings looked like they had been through a natural disaster. However, none of that can compare with the population. Body parts were literally strewn about the area; blood had melted the thick snow everywhere, so that grass was actually seen under the inches of it. They must have attacked at night because some of the bodies were found still in their beds amidst the debris. Everyone, man, woman, or child, no one was exempt from the attack. Not only this, every one of the villagers were found decapitated."

Tsunade just stared dumbfounded at the last comment. She didn't say anything, but looked up at Kakashi. Kakashi stood there emotionless, but it was obvious that his breathing had picked up. This seemed to be visibly angering him.

Baki continued, "They found the heads in the town square, arranged in an ornate fashion, each upon a pike of different length with the pike entering the back of the head and exiting through the mouth. This was done very deliberately, as any blood that dripped down was moved into some ornate pattern. In the middle of the array was a single body that was not decapitated and seemed to be intact. She was a woman of about twenty years of age. She lay down in the center on her back upon a raised dais, with her head fixed upward to look at the heads that hung in the air. It looked like she had been precisely attacked as she was paralyzed from the neck down, and her body had been slashed repeatedly to allow the letting of blood that seemed to cascade down from the dais into a deliberate pattern. However, when they found her, she was still alive."

It looked like a glimmer of hope had entered Tsunade's eyes, but Baki simply shook his head to answer the question before it was asked. Tsunade looked back down at the floor.

"She did say one thing though, over and over, and over again," continued Baki, and Tsunade's eyes once again met his. "Devil eyes, devil eyes, devil eyes, devil eyes. She repeated the phrase until she expired a few minutes later. They were unsure if she was delirious or what this meant. However, after some investigating into the village, they found that this was done recently, like in a 24 hour time span. They also saw that it looked like this was done in no more than a team of two ninjas, as two sets of footprints were starkly different from the rest. You could almost tell the path they moved through the village, each seemed to take a side and go to work. The two sides were starkly different as the right seemed much quicker and deliberately cleaner. The left however seemed to toy around with his or her victims more, as could be told as there appeared to be many signs of a scuffle in the snow on his or her's side. It was not until a few days later that our sources told us that any talks of uprising within the Hidden Cloud were effectively squelched, and the remaining villages returned under the control of the Thunder Country."

Tsunade contemplated this new information for a while, and then turned to Kakashi, "What do you think this means?" she asked.

Kakashi merely shrugged, "I don't know. Anything like this could have been done by someone of perhaps medium or high Chuunin at least or a lower level Jounin. However, the manner in which they did this concerns me more. Ninjas by nature are not supposed to be this slow in killing someone. Either they were trying to make a statement of some kind, or they were under orders to do this in order to make an example of this village, or even both. The only thing I can suggest is that we keep our wits above us as there's not much more we can do. I don't know what this 'devil eyes' remark means but we'll see if it has any importance or not."

Baki nodded in silent agreement. Tsunade felt so helpless even though she knew there was nothing she could have done to prevent it; it simply was beyond her reach. Still, the sick feeling of guilt stayed with her. Finally, she spoke, "Thank you for informing me of this. I hope that despite this new information being brought to my attention that the Chuunin exam moves along smoothly. Thank you, you may leave now."

Baki bowed deeply before leaving out the tent flap. Kakashi followed suit, giving Tsunade a reassuring pat on the shoulder before leaving out the tent as well. Tsunade simply sat in her chair, staring at the tent ceiling, contemplating just what they were getting into.

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"HAAAAAAA," shouted Lee as he came across the clearing towards his sensei. This ground had been worn several times now, as footprints had changed the snow around so now patches of grass were showing underneath. Lee charged in at Gai, delivering a jumping, front kick towards Gai's face. Gai blocked the kick and grabbed Lee by the ankle, swinging him towards a nearby tree. Lee, looked wide-eyed with surprise, but quickly regained himself, and curled his body towards Gai, attempting to deliver a punch to Gai's midsection. Gai let go of Lee's leg and took a few paces back. Lee reverted himself back to his feet, and landed on the ground, skidding the snow under his sandals. The centrifugal force of the throw had sent Lee a good distance from Gai, but he quickly rushed forward to change the gap. Gai quickly threw a left jab at Lee, only for Lee to jump and grab Gai's arm by the wrist, attempting to bring his own body around for a kick to Gai's head. Gai anticipated and blocked high knocking Lee back; he then brought his own leg up high to knock Lee away from his body. Lee took the kick in the ribs, wincing painfully, but used the momentum to keep his hold on Gai's still outstretched arm and bring his body around full circle to deliver his own kick to Gai's side. Gai grimaced slightly as he retreated back from his position a few steps form Lee.

Gai laughed openly, "Excellent work Lee, you truly are shining in your youth," and gave Lee a thumbs up and shining smile.

"Thank you Gai-sensei," said Lee, returning the pose. Lee knew Gai wasn't going nearly all out with him, but still was grateful that his sensei would take time to spar with him. 'Someday, Gai-sensei won't have to slow himself down at all when we spar,' Lee thought to himself with a smile. Lee was about to charge again, but the sound of crunching underbrush distracted him.

He looked to his left to see someone approaching; he focused his eyes to get a better look, when a punch to the right side of his face forced him back to reality. Lee sprawled across the ground and landed face-down, with his head in a pile of snow. He quickly shook his head in order to get any snow off him, making his hair quake madly as he moved his head from side to side.

"Lee," came his sensei's voice, "It is most important for a ninja to know everything going on around him, but you must not let these things distract you from the moment at hand."

"I see," replied Lee and he quickly pulled out a notepad and quickly wrote down his sensei's lesson before returning it to his belt. Lee looked back at the spot where he had seen someone approaching and was taken aback at who was standing there.

Gaara stood before them, his arms crossed and his eyes fixated on the two of them. Lee rose quickly to his feet and returned Gaara's look. For a while, none of them said anything, until Gai shouted in triumph and said, "Lee, I have a most excellent idea for you. You see Lee, sparring with your sensei is all well and good, but if you are to maintain and grow, you must meet new challenges. Therefore..." He quickly strode over to Gaara and gave him a reassuring pat on the head, "I think sparring with this youth will give you a much needed boost in your skills. Of course, with your permission."

Gaara looked up at Gai, who was now grinning, the light reflecting off his teeth in a brilliant smile. His expression was pretty nonchalant, but he soon nodded in agreement.

"Most excellent," shouted Gai, "Well, I'd love to watch you two youth duke it out in your prime of life, but I have something I must attend to. Lee, later," and Gai quickly ran back to the campsite.

Lee waved goodbye to his sensei; he couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive being alone with Gaara. 'After all,' he thought, 'this is the person who almost took away my nindo.' Lee remained in his position for a while, one arm crooked behind his back in a fist, the other outstretched against his side, with the back of his hand out against Gaara.

Gaara simply stared at Lee before finally saying, "What's the matter bowlhead, frightened?"

Lee gritted his teeth at that comment. "My nindo does not allow me to be scared," he shouted, "If your wish is for me to fight you, then fight I shall." He suddenly charged at Gaara delivering a fist towards his face. Gaara stood indifferent to Lee's attack, when the gourde on Gaara's back suddenly opened and sand began to poor out, blocking Lee's fist.

'It always feels like I'm hitting something solid,' Lee thought. He backed off a few paces before attempting to kick Gaara again, only for the sand to once again block his attacks. He went on for five more hits, each one being blocked easily by the sand surrounding Gaara until Gaara retaliated. The sand moved outward, forming a closed fist that made its way towards Lee. Lee ducked and rolled to the side, again attempting to break Gaara's defenses with little success.

Throughout the sparring session, Gaara merely stood his ground against Lee's onslaught of techniques. Nothing was getting through. Finally, Gaara had had enough, "Desert Coffin," he said, and a rush of sand suddenly came towards Lee, grabbing his leg and throwing him against a tree. Lee winced in pain, and raised his hands to block, expecting Gaara to continue the attack. However, Gaara's sand simply came back to its original position around him.

Lee got back to his feet and smiled, "You certainly have changed Gaara-san," said Lee. Gaara only stared back at him with indifference. "Well, let's take this up a notch then shall we?" and with that Lee slowly reached down to his ankles...

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"Damn that thickbrowed bastard; he thinks he's so great," complained Naruto, as he fought back to the river amongst a thick underbrush, "he won't even tell me what amazing lesson he's been blabbing about anyway." Naruto slowly made his way back to the river he had been fishing from in a desperate attempt to at least meet the quota that Gai-sensei had put up for him. "Who does he think he is anyway? He just seems like some narcissistic freak who takes pleasure in tormenting me."

His thoughts of how much he hated Gai were quickly cut off by another sound in the distance. "Oh, how lucky, a hot spring." The words perked up Naruto. 'A hot spring, here!, he thought. He jumped in the air and rushed off to find the source of the noise, breaking noisily through the thicket.

He finally reached the origin of the noise and turned a bright red. He quickly scrambled backwards behind a large pine tree. Several of the female sand chuunin were undressing and bathing in a large hot spring nearby. "We were lucky to find this thing, the weather here is unbearable." All of the other chuunin agreed to this statement.

"Yes, very lucky indeed," came a voice above Naruto.

Naruto furrowed his brow and looked straight up to see what looked like a tangle of snow sitting in a tree. It took him a few seconds to realize that he was looking at the hair of that perverted hermit Jiraiya. He was laughing silently to himself and observing the Sand Chuunin from a distance with a telescope. 'Damn perverted hermit, what does the think he's doing?' thought Naruto, 'Well I'll fix him.'

Naruto quietly created a shadow clone and began performing the rasengan. Luckily, the wind covered up most of the sound it was creating. Finally after he completed it, he rammed it hard into the trunk of the tree, splintering the wood in every direction.

Jiraiya clung to the tree for dear life as it began to shake violently. Finally, the rasengan passed through completely, causing the tree to topple in the direction of the hot spring taking Jiraiya with it. The Chuunin below him scrambled out of the way quickly before the tree and Jiraiya came splashing down into the water below, throwing the hot spring water everywhere. Naruto laughed to himself at the predicament he had placed the perverted hermit in.

Jiraiya quickly composed himself before realizing he was surrounded by very angry women. He laughed nervously and quickly hid his telescope behind his back.

"PERVERT!!"

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"Oh man, that might be permanent," said Jiraiya, talking in a very whiny voice and rubbing his cheek softly. Suddenly, his tone turned furious as he looked at Naruto, "FOOL, I didn't teach you that technique so you could use it like that."

"Serves you right," replied Naruto, "I swear all you ever do is peek at women, can't you think of something better to do with your time. What are you doing here anyway?"

"Well I WAS collecting data for my latest novel until I was so rudely interrupted," said Jiraiya indignantly, "but I've got my own business to take care of in Thunder Country, so I'm tagging along, albeit secretly. I don't think Tsunade would appreciate the idea of me coming along."

Naruto looked at Jiraiya in a confused expression, "Why, is she afraid you'll peek at all the women in this trip or something?"

"Bah, brats like you just don't understand the true nature of peeking," lectured Jiraiya, "It is the great shinobi ability to be able to look at one's enemies at afar without getting caught. It is in this manner that I train every day, diligently practicing my stealthy art. Day in and day out, I will continue to train my amazing eyes so that no woman will ever escape my sight."

Naruto simply stared at Jiraiya in sheer amazement, "Yeah right you perverted hermit," he finally said, "You know, since you left I got stuck with that bowlheaded bastard Gai. He always makes me do the stupidest exercises like doing chores for the entire camp; sparring with him without using any of my super techniques. Training should be about learning the coolest and most powerful moves available and doing the most advanced training methods available, expanding your capacity so that you can become stronger. I can't get stronger just by catching fish in frozen rivers or cleaning up after that jerk Kiba's dog. I need to become the strongest I can so that I can make the entire village realize my exist- "

A sharp slap across the face stopped Naruto in mid-sentence. He turned his head quickly back to Jiraiya, who was looking at him in a very disappointed manner. "What the hell was that for you perverted hermit?" yelled Naruto.

"Shut up," said Jiraiya in a very forceful but soft tone. Naruto was taken aback, Jiraiya was never so serious. Jiraiya sighed softly to himself, "You just don't get it do you brat," he said. "I've watched people like Gai come and go in the ninja academy; those people who only go in on the basis of hard work without any natural talent. Very few have succeeded under those conditions, but Gai is different. I've seen him create his own unique nindo, create rivalries, and train like his life depended on it for the simple reason to get stronger, to be able to survive amidst other ninja. True, Gai is not the best jutsu teacher, and even though he is capable of doing jutsus unlike his pupil, nothing came easy for him. Do you get what I'm saying Naruto?"

Naruto just stared blankly at him, and then replied, "Do you?"

Jiraiya looked like he would very much like to punch Naruto, but thought against it. "Forget it brat, some lessons just need to be learned on your own."

"Whatever perverted hermit," said Naruto. He then proceeded to walk off, leaving Jiraiya along again.

He smiled to himself, 'You've got a lot to learn yet brat, but you'll come out alright I think. Now, back to practicing MY nindo,' he thought as he got out his telescope and proceeded to find another peeking spot.

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Julius sat on the roof of the Raikage's palace, looking out over the horizon. He could feel them coming, ever closer. Groups of filthy trash were coming to invade their territory, like a virus coming into a new host. He snarled, "I will purge the refuse from my sight; they offend my senses so."

"Oh, feeling bloodthirsty are we Brother Julius?" added a very malicious voice behind him.

"Not so bloodthirsty as much as offended Brother Set," said Julius in a very cold voice, "You feel them coming too no doubt."

"Yessss," said Set in voice filled with anticipation, "I can feel their presence so well now." He closed his eyes and let out a long breath, which chilled in the air, as if smoke were springing forth from his mouth. Set allowed himself to smile at this, permitting a very long tongue to loll out of his mouth, licking his lips in eagerness. "Do you think they will be worthy competition Brother Julius?"

"Maybe," said Julius indifferently, "I certainly hope so; the boredom is overwhelming sometimes. Perhaps we will receive someone interesting with which to play this time."

"Perhaps indeed Brother. Ah well, I must find some activity with which to amuse myself with until then I suppose." He turned around suddenly and began to walk back downstairs."

"Where are you going Set?" asked Julius nonchalantly.

"Where else, I'm going to find Raan," and with that, went off to seek his prey.