A/N: As you can see, I'm using the names of fairytales as names for the chapters. They don't always have logic but I try to find some that has at least a sort of a connection to the chapter contents. In this case it's about a girl in the middle of 'new' environment where everything is interesting and huge. The hashirama trees are gigantic after all. Or something...

As the sea calls 3
Thumbelina

"Three hours and twenty minutes… I got better." Kairi mused. While the subtraction might've been big – whole ten minutes – the distance was also great and thus while keeping up a steady pace, the seconds and minutes she managed to nip off per kilometer accumulated together. That, and Kairi had been training hard both with weights and without chakra. Though not both at the same time. The point was though that she was the first at outpost five.

The outpost was situated in a tower right at the edge of desert. It was manned by three people at time, mostly for social purposes. The chuunin in that particular outpost didn't do much patrolling, just kept contact with Suna about people coming and going.

The instructions were to wait for the main group so after stretching a bit, Kairi drank a bit water and sat down into the shadow of the tower to wait. They'd probably sign-out all together.

"You know… One would think that you are lying in wait here to ambush us and get the logs." An amused voice spoke from above her. Kairi looked up tiredly at the open window that had someone poking their head out.

"…Koto-kun. How's it going?" The girl asked with a faint smile. Koto had been originally in the same genin team with her and gained promotion three years ago.

"Just fine." The teen shrugged and after a moment of consideration, he jumped out of the window, landing neatly in front of Kairi. "So… Konoha then?"

"Yeah. I'm getting a full set by now." The year they'd graduated the first chuunin exam available had been in Konoha too but their jounin-sensei hadn't recommended them to participate yet. In the next ones in Kumo they'd been properly stomped to ground in the second phase.

"You know… Out of all genin participating from Suna, I think you have the best chances when it comes to terrain. You've been running so many missions outside Kaze no Kuni and participated to exams that you should have easy time by now in adjusting and adapting."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence. But this is not only about me. We are going to Konoha where teamwork is valued more than in other countries. While I could get through all the phases on my own and qualify to the finals, if my teammates drag me down, it doesn't matter in the end." The girl shrugged. Koto didn't look at her in pity but with a hint of sadness.

"You used to be so full of faith even after we failed for the first time." He stated.

"After that my father died just before the next exams. Excuse me for mourning him even while in exams." Kairi snapped. Koto raised his hands in mock-surrender.

"I know, I know… And I'm still grateful for you to getting Yomi and I through the two first phases even though you forfeited right after that."

It was true. All of her mishaps hadn't been only because of poor teammates or too difficult test. In the beginning she'd had two wonderful teammates but she had been weak herself.

"At the rate I'm going now, that exam was probably the only one where I had an actual chance in getting promoted. I don't get why Kazekage-sama keeps pushing me to these things. These are for publicity as much as for promotion. Why put a failure such as I-…?"

"Stop right there, Kairi-chan." Koto glared at her. "You are not a failure. You are a chuunin level ninja already. I don't know what sort of politics there are going on that prevents you from getting a field promotion but you can't let this get to you."

"Otou-san said that Sandaime Kazekage was the one to degree it when sealing our family name behind red tape and classifications. Yondaime probably could overturn the decision but as far as I know, he isn't even aware that such degree exists." Kairi didn't know the real reason but she could guess it had something to do with second war tensions and later Minato-ji's infamy on battlefield. If a member of Namikaze family was to be promoted, it would be on public arena as a show of talent and power. And as chuunin she could claim her family name finally.

But that was just speculation about obscure politics. Kairi could live even without the name. It didn't matter that much to her…

"Okay…" The boy next to her nodded slowly and looked up to the horizon then. "It looks like the next part of your group is arriving. I think I'll go to get the log book now."

"…Alright." Kairi gave a small wave to her ex-team member who simply jumped up to the window. With a sigh, the girl got on her feet and turned to face the desert where the next part of their contingency was arriving. She wasn't surprised to see Team 1 at the head of it.

Seven out of ten teams participating and their jounin-senseis were at the tower now. Koto and his colleague were putting down the names as more people arrived. The rest of Kairi's team came with the last two teams.

They were ordered to gather with their jounin-sensei and then they'd start their trek towards Konoha. It would take a couple of days since they'd be resting the nights. It made sense since they all were on different levels even if there was no rookies in their group. Gaara was the youngest but he was… well, Gaara.

Kairi resigned herself to listen Hara and Souseki for the next few days. The run through the desert had been enjoyable especially when the two took so long (or had Natsuhiko been holding them back so she could rest longer?), but now she'd have to be with them for the next two weeks at least.

Kairi bid goodbye to Koto and sidled up next to Natsuhiko then. The man smiled at the girl when the group began moving.

"Had a good run?"

"Very enjoyable." The girl nodded. "I broke my record by ten minutes."

"Well, there you go. You might have to slow down for you teammates though when the actual exam takes a place."

"I know… But what I've seen from previous exams, the survival part is in the second phase. First I need to get through the first phase. And with those two…" She sighed.

"What do you mean by that?!" Hara snarled immediately.

"Oh, other than the obvious Mr.-I-didn't-get-through-the-first-phase?" Kairi deadpanned.

"Jyari-kun. Please shut up." Souseki sighed.

"Getting high and mighty there, aren't you!?" Hara continued like his 'friend' hadn't spoken. "You are the one to have failed, what? Four times already and yet you act so though."

"Well, I've always gotten to the second phase at least and once almost to the finals. It was only in Kiri where people cut down brutally the participants that no one from Suna got through the first phase." Kairi glared. "Statistics are nothing when compared to the real thing."

Hara harrumphed and turned away, speeding up his steps. Souseki followed after him. Natsuhiko sighed.

"Why was I saddled with this team again?" He asked running a hand through his sand-colored locks and accidentally crooking his forehead protector. The jounin straightened it immediately and tightened the knot at the back of his head.

"Because you and I had been doing missions together and the boys needed a team? And their jounin-sensei gladly gave them to you?" Kairi shrugged.

"These are going to be long four days, aren't they?" The man asked.

"I feel your pain, I really do."

"Your sarcasm is noted and appreciated."

"Thank you."

The journey was spent with occasional chatter but mostly in silence. The group proceeded with easy run as they were in no hurry. During evenings they stopped to camp. Twice in an inn and once in the forest. Kairi regularly challenged people in a game of poker or blackjack, easily winning most of them until she was delegated into the dealer.

"They are your decks so of course you are cheating." Natsuhiko explained.

"Sensei, how rude! I have only one cheat-deck and that is for my sleight of hand tricks." Kairi gasped.

"With the way you've been scamming even jounin here, I beg to differ." Came the retort accompanied by a couple of chuckles.

"Fine, see if I deal any good cards for you!"

In the Sunday morning they finally arrived to Konoha. The exams would begin on the following Saturday at the Ninja Academy.

The passports and the visa were inspected before they were let into the village. There were some genin corps members that were showing way to the hotels that were booked for the foreign teams to stay in. That made it easier for the local population to keep an eye on them. Kairi couldn't help but wonder if some Konohan spies had caught wind of the whispers of war. To her knowledge the information was limited only to top jounin, chuunin and a few of the participating genins.

The girl looked up at Natsuhiko. Given the way he was glancing subtly about to memorize the civilian areas from shinobi ones, he most likely knew about the invasion already. The entire Team 1 knew too. Kairi could see that the tension on Temari's and Kankuro's shoulders wasn't just because of Gaara's presence. Last time she'd see something like that had been in chuunin exams in Kumo briefly before two Kiri teams attacked Iwa teams. All of them had been disqualified as not even the first phase had started.

Kairi sighed, regardless of what her progress in these exams was, there would be difficult few weeks ahead of her. In the meanwhile, she'd better take the opportunity to sightsee in in this village hidden among leaves.

They signed up to the hotel and deal the rooms for pairs. The genin boys were mainly paired based on their teams and girls then shuffled and paired together. Not so surprisingly, Kairi shared the room with Temari.

"You going to take a look around?" Kairi asked when they sort through their belongings and see what they could leave to the room and what they should keep with them. She wasn't particularly close with the girl despite them having been on the same class in the academy. Kairi had taken her chance to graduate a year earlier to get out of that stifling madhouse full of kids more or less immature, cruel and plain annoying.

"Yes, uh…" The Kazekage's daughter floundered a bit. She didn't remember Kairi's name. And the girl didn't offer it either.

"Me too. Given my history, I simply can't pass up this chance to see the fifth but first one of the five great ninja villages." Aside from card games, Kairi loved architecture and history. She had studied them both in her previous life. She remembered those lessons even if she didn't remember her teachers or classmates.

"I see…" Temari said but scowled then. "You are the one with failure after failure in her exam record, right? What are you doing here then anymore?"

"Ah, excellent question." Kairi smiled. "Maybe they need my skills next month regardless of how I do here."

Because despite Kairi's abysmal exam record, she was no genin anymore. People knew it even when they tried to bring her down. With a flippant wave, the blonde turned to leave the room, her other hand once again checking her hair sticks. They were still tightly tucked into the bun and this time Kairi had even managed to twist her side locks into the mess too.

"I see." Temari nodded. So she was aware of the invasion already. Good to have a confirmation.

Konoha was… Konoha was an experience. Even though Kairi was innately aware that she was wearing the hitai-ate of a rival village, she felt more or less welcomed. People were warm and greeting her when she bought some snack or asked for directions. The amount of gossip floating around was crazy but it wasn't anything terribly secret to be hidden. Just mindless gossip even if it was about the shinobi in the village. Now that foreigners were in too and still coming, there provided yet another source for rumors.

Kairi looked up at the four stone-faces of Hokage Mountain.

"Hello, Minato-jisan…" She thought with a faint smile before turning away. "Pity I never got to know you like Arashi-jisan."

Maybe she could visit the memorial stone someday before the exams itself began. Not today thought. Today was for relaxing strolling and familiarizing herself with the areas allowed for the foreign shinobi to use. As a preparation for the influx of visitors there was an occasional map in a street corner to show that for example clan compounds and majority of civilian residential areas were off-limits. One might wonder what Konoha was providing foreigners with a map of their village but… They were optimist tree-huggers. And Konoha's structure was pretty clear-cut anyways according to the map. Clan compounds were hard to miss anyways and public functions like Academy, Hospital and Hokage Tower were easy to find even without the map. And those three were big targets anyways during invasions. Civilians… their quarters were marked off-limits for courtesy's sake.

While wandering around, there wasn't much familiar(canon) faces to see. Some headbands but mostly civilians. Kairi stuck out like a sore thumb with her tan, and fan, and Sunan attire but it didn't bother her. It was routine for her already.

Eventually Kairi got tired to just go aimlessly around the merchant street and decided to go check where exactly was the Academy so she could find her way there quickly on Saturday. The girl turned around and headed approximately towards the Hokage Mountain. She might've taken a detour on the way but who was there to judge her? No one.

Children's laughter, old wives' gossip, smell of food and leaves. And…

"Shinobi-san, you are from the Village Hidden in Sand, correct? What is your reason for being in Konoha?" A young voice of a girl asked behind a corner. Kairi slowed her steps a bit. That was quite young voice, probably a genin. Huh, maybe one of the competitor she'd face… Who was she confronting though?

"We're here for the Chuunin Exams." It was Temari who answered. Of course it was. This was probably the incident were Konohamaru had run into Kankuro. But the voice of the girl speaking previously didn't sound like Sakura's from anime. So who was it then?

Suppressing her chakra to minimum, Kairi stepped into the street and took a look at the group there. She wanted a chance to observe them all before garnering their attention. Temari, Kankuro… Gaara in the nearby tree. Three Konohan shinobi… ninja. Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and… an unknown girl. Plus Konohamaru corps.

The unknown girl was the one that had addressed Temari and asked for the passport like protocol in every major village required. Kairi remembered asking for passport just a week before leaving Suna from a pair of Taki shinobi. The Konohan girl had long brown hair braided down her back and was wearing comfortable looking shinobi attire. Easy to move in yet very… genin. Probably recently graduated given her height and the fact she hadn't invested in armor yet. And given the current company probably even replacement of Haruno Sakura. With the symbol of Nara Clan in her jacket, it was quite plausible theory.

"I see." The Nara girl said. "May I remind you that the streets are regarded as civilian areas and that violence is prohibited in these locations? If you are wishing to train, I'm sure there are several designated training sites allocated for you."

Both Kankuro and Sasuke tensed, like ready to fight each other anyways. While Kairi had never had any need to interact with the puppet user, she had heard of his temper when the boy was in the academy.

"Kankuro…" That was Gaara. "You are a disgrace to our village." The twelve-year-old was hanging upside down from the branch of the tree. 'Just chilling' one could say if they knew nothing about the red-head. Kairi's interractions with the boy were zero. She only knew about him through howling wind and Shukaku's rage. Of whispers in the streets and her mother sighing while going through yet another report about an assassination attempt failing. Not that she ever told Kairi what they were actually about.

No wait… There was one time when Kairi was eight or nine. When her memories of this world – her archive – weren't that clear yet. She had met with a boy with red hair and a poncho wrapped around him. Large, large teal eyes looking at her innocently. And when she offered and hand to shake, she got her ulna and radius bones in her right arm broken by the sand shooting at her. The pain had made the girl to pass out and when she woke, Kairi found herself in Sunagakure's hospital with her mother next to her. And Kairi hadn't had a clear image of what had happened to her. But she did go her way to avoid the boy ever since.

"Gaara…" Kankuro addressed his little brother, also snapping Kairi out of her sudden flashback. Konohamaru was on his feet now and not a feet in the air. The boy hid behind Naruto after casting a wary glance at Kairi.

"Have you forgotten the reason we came here?" The jinchuuriki asked.

"I… I know. They challenged us. See, here's what happened-…" A sucky excuse and the slight tremble in Kankuro's voice didn't make it any more convincing.

"Shut up. Or I'll kill you." What a change it was from those wide innocent eyes to those filled with apathy and hate. But Gaara wasn't Kairi's problem to fix. No, that was for the protagonist to handle. Even with the presence of the mysterious Nara girl instead of Sakura, Kairi was certain that the main building blocks of that world were still in place. Naruto could sympathize with a fellow jinchuuriki but still set himself apart from him. To use the 'Talk no Jutsu'… Hopefully.

"R-Right. I was out of line. Sorry, Gaara. I was totally out of line." Kankuro backed down.

"I'm sorry for any trouble he caused." Gaara said then to the Konoha genin.

"It was just a misunderstanding. It was nice to meet you." The Nara girl bowed. It was interesting. She was tense, like she knew something was amiss. Like she knew something about Gaara. Maybe she was a sensor type. The Killing Intent radiating from the boy was subtle enough currently that mere genin wouldn't have sensed it. Kairi wasn't exactly a sensor but she was still familiar enough with Gaara's chakra by now. The three days of travelling had been aggravating not only because of Hara and Souseki but also because of the tension that everyone had because of Gaara's presence and the constant feel of the potential of being killed. It wasn't nice. And during evenings it was worse when they settled down to sleep but only the jinchuuriki was awake with a couple of jounin who were on watch.

Gaara appeared on the ground with sand-assisted Body Flicker. "Let's go. We didn't come here to play games. You too, Kairi."

He knew her name? Or remembered? It was fuzzy, had she introduced herself to the boy back then? Or was there some other reason that he knew?

"My name is Kairi. Nice to meet you Gaara-chan!"

"Ah, sure." Kairi replied with a smile, pushing away the questions for now and enjoying the way the three genin and the three academy students tensed. Hmm, was she wrong about the Nara girl being a sensor if she didn't notice Kairi? Or was Kairi when suppressing her chakra so small of a target that with Gaara nearby, she vanished from the radar? Interesting.

The girl walked past the three locals and joined the Sand Siblings aka Team 1. She glanced at the Konohan Team 7. Naruto and Sasuke looked like about the same than she'd expected, even if the conversation here hadn't gone like scripted. Naruto didn't get Temari to explain about the chuunin exams, meaning that he probably knew at least somewhat about them. So someone was watching after him and keeping him somewhat updated. And Sasuke hadn't asked for Gaara's name (plus title). And if Kairi had read the situation correctly, Sasuke had been with the other five and not arrived at the last minute like in the original version of this story. Meaning that he was connecting with others.

Kairi let her mouth quirk a smile as she looked at the Nara girl. She was cute but quite ordinary. Probably had somewhat unimaginative name like 'Shikako' and… was possibly like Kairi.

"She is making waves already. This will promise to be interesting." The teenager thought in amusement. It looked like the Nara girl was puzzling over Kairi's presence too. She was also a deviation from canon after all.

"Omoshiroi…" Kairi hummed, walking after her fellow Suna Shinobi. She wasn't sure where they were going now but Kairi had a feeling it had to do with the fact that Gaara knew her name. She wouldn't pry though. She would keep her distance from the boy and not show her fear and not antagonize him either.

After all, her sense of self-preservation exceeded her loyalty to her village.

A/N: And you got Shikako! As you can probably guess, I'll tweak a bit the fic-canon to include Kairi. Not much but slightly. I'm not sure if I'll ever write Shikako's PoV about Kairi... most likely not.

More stuff about Kairi is explained and her former genin-teammate is introduced. But what's going on with Gaara? *gasp*

BTW, I noticed yesterday when working with chapters 4 and 5 that Silver Queen is using more English way of everything. The order of names, the names of jutsus and places... While I use a bit more Japanese form. I'll try to explain this as a difference between countries but in the narrative it will still be surname-first name order because that's how Kairi thinks the things.

And... what do you think about the Archive and the way Kairi compares things? I try not to make her nit-pick everything that differs from canon but she will still follow the events with great interest.

Speaking of which... Do you think Kairi should get to the finals or have her team fail in the second phase? The plot can go either way so I'm currently undecided. Thankfully there is still a bit of way until then but still.

Replies to Reviews:

-kankanime123:
As you can read from this chapter, Kairi doesn't use her father's surname. The matter will be clarified in the fifth chapter I guess.
But yes, this is her first time in Konoha even if she has visited the Fire Country before.

-robina852:
Thank you. :)

-10th squad 3rd Seat:
Thank you. Death Parade? I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about.
Yes, there might be some other books like that too but most likely only with some really ancient clans with summons. Tied to naturechakra and all so...
Ah, yes. Since I placed Kairi in Suna I decided not to make her a twelve years old but still give her a reason to be in these chuunin exams.