Shanan felt amazing and like she could do anything. She felt pretty, she felt powerful and most of all, she felt ready to take on her new jutsu. This time she invited Sasuke along so that he could offer any extra insight and also, kind of, so that he wouldn't be jealous.

First, she practiced creating clouds. That alone took a day and a half. And that was the easy part, Kakashi had told her. Next was to practice turning herself into smaller and smaller water droplets. That took a few days of practice. And then she had to work on changing directions while in that form, but that only took half a day. Next, was creating clouds while in her water droplet form and that took almost a full day. The last step would be to charge her clouds, but first, she had to make it to the top of one.

Sasuke had come along with her every day that week and was certain she would perfect it within the next few days. He had given a few ideas when Kakashi's instruction didn't seem to work for her, since he knew her better, and Kakashi seemed glad for the extra pair of eyes. Especially from that of an Uchiha. An Uchiha's vision and perception was always superior, even if their Sharingan hadn't been unlocked yet. And having him around seemed to give Shanan even more confidence.

Two days before the Chunin exams it was time to start bringing all she had learned together. It was both exciting and nerve-racking, but even Naruto, Neji and Lee had shown up to watch the culmination of Shanan's hard work.

Shanan, Sasuke and Kakashi were standing in a small huddle going over the next steps for her jutsu.

"Look, just start low and slow, ok," Sasuke advised. "Don't go too high until you're ready. Maybe start at the top of the trees." He had been excited and he believed in her, but he was also really worried for her safety. Kakashi was right, it was a dangerous thing to even practice and now that the day was here, it made him nervous.

Shanan looked at the trees. They didn't seem so high up, even if she did fall. "Ok," she agreed.

"I'll be on standby in case anything happens. Right underneath where you go up, so don't veer off to any one side," Kakashi added.

Shanan nodded and the three of them started towards a more open spot in the field as Sasuke grabbed her hand to hold her back.

Shanan stopped and turned to look at him. "What is it?" she smiled and asked curiously.

Sasuke wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her really tight. "Just in case anything happens, even though I know you'll be fine," he said in a gentle and concerned tone.

Shanan put her arms around him and hugged him back. "I'll be ok, don't worry," she told him.

Knowing that Sasuke was worried just made her love and appreciate him so much more. And then she felt it again. She had felt it a lot that week ever since they had shared their feelings. The chakra absorption and the wave of euphoria that accompanied it. Even if it was a bit dizzying this time.

"Are you ready?" Sasuke asked as he let go of her.

"Yeah..." she replied, looking up into the sky. She was trying to remember all that she needed to do. But it was suddenly getting harder to focus. She brushed it off as nerves as she backed away from Sasuke and readied herself.

"On my mark," Kakashi said. "Are you sure you're ready?" he asked as he looked at her somewhat suspiciously.

Shanan blinked slowly. Her head was starting to feel a little fuzzy as her vision blurred somewhat. "Yeah. I know I can do this."

Kakashi got into position. "Alright. 5... 4..."

Shanan took some slow, shallow breaths.

"3... 2..."

Shanan closed her eyes and tried hard to concentrate on Kakashi's voice.

"...1"

At that, Shanan turned herself into tiny water droplets and made her way into the air and tried to gather enough water for a cloud at the same time. By the time she had made it thirty feet she hadn't gathered enough for a cloud so she kept going up.

Naruto and the others ran over to stand with them when they saw that she hadn't stopped.

"Why isn't she stopping?" Sasuke asked in a panic.

"Something is... very wrong," Kakashi told him. "Naruto, make some shadow-clones. As many as you can."

"No problem," he said as a few hundred appeared all across the grass. "Is she gonna be ok?"

"She better be," Sasuke said to no one.

"Unfortunately, I can't read her chakra in this form," Neji told them.

Meanwhile, Shanan kept trying to bring in enough water to create a cloud, but she was having enough trouble staying in her water droplet form as it was. She had started having shooting pains in her head, right behind her eyes, out of nowhere. She finally wavered and turned solid and started falling, fast. Luckily, she was able to catch herself and turn back into water droplet form so that she could try and get down safely. But then, suddenly, an intense sharp pain made her feel like her eyes might explode and she turned solid once more just before she blacked out completely.