Ayaka, Terumi, and Nozomi succeed in becoming genin in that year's exam, and even end up in the same team. Even though we all now have our missions, we still play Capture the Flag almost every other Saturday, like we have done ever since the first time we did it. On Sundays the losers would treat the winners to a dinner at Thornside. We also keep changing the teams, and me and Sasori are put into different teams almost always, since if we were in the same team, it meant pretty much an automatic win for our team.

This realization gave Kazuto, who had been in the losing team for five weeks in a row, a new idea. "I'm done with this! Next time it's the six of us against Sasori and Kuro-chan!"

Ayaka frowns at him. "That's a bit too much."

But no one else seems to share her sentiment. Nozomi and Terumi praise the idea together, loudly, and even Sanji and Karura don't seem to mind it.

"You cannot refuse!" Kazuto points at us. "We will fucking destroy you!"

I turn to Sasori who does the same. In silence we look at each other for a moment, and then we both smile.

"Fine," I announce and then turn back to them. "Shall we do it tomorrow?"

Since we just finished a game, tomorrow is Sunday.

"Fine by me." Kazuto smirks. "And when we win, you must admit that you're just normal kids; no better than us."

"We've never said we're better than you." I roll my eyes. Though it is true.

"And you treat us to lunch," Nozomi adds.

"And you let us cut your hair," Ayaka nods, still holding a grudge over us cutting her hair. I purse my lips and run my hair through my reddish-brown hair. They have grown quite a lot and already hide my upper back completely. I keep them on a loose ponytail.

"And you must carry your pillow with you for the next week everywhere you go!" Sanji announces and gets a frown from all of us.

"Acceptable," Ayaka nods in the end and turns to me and Sasori.

"That's a lot of requests." I chuckle. "So, are you ready for what we want?"

Kazuto gives us an overconfident snort. "Whatever, you will not win anyways!"

I glance at Sasori. "They had four, so we should have four requests as well… You thinking the same thing as me?"

"I believe so," the redhead nods and I beckon him to speak since nobody is objecting. Sasori turns to our six friends. "In the case we win… You will accept that you are inferior to us."

"You will treat us in Thornside once every week for the rest of this year and walk around with a paper bag over your head for one week."

I see some grimaces, but no one objects. Since it's almost September, there's still some months to go in the year. I smile and glance at Sasori, who chuckles.

"And you will give us half of the money you make from your missions this year," he ends our list.

"What?!" Terumi shrieks. "But we just became genin and have no money at all…!"

"Do you accept?" I ask with the smallest smile.

"Sure." Kazuto gives me a cocky smile. "No way you can beat the six of us."

"Alright." Ayaka nods. "We will meet at the Kazekage building tomorrow at two in the afternoon. I'll bring the flags and the timers. Don't be late. You get the training side. Guys, let's go plan."

We follow with our eyes as our six companions leave with Ayaka in the lead.

"…You want to come over?" I ask after a moment of silence. Sasori nods.

"You do realize we must win, or our lives are ruined forever?" he asks when we turn to walk to my home.

"Yeah…" I sigh. "But we will win. We can do two against four, so six can't be that bad…"

We had gone two against four several times when our teammates happened to get captured. It has gained us some scorn from all of them with the way we sometimes tend to ignore our team. But saving them is much more hassle than just winning the game on our own.

When we get there, kaachan is not home so I assume she is on some mission.

"So, what's the plan?" I sigh as we sit down at the kitchen table.

"Training side, eh…?" Sasori thinks. Training side means the side of the village where my – nowadays all of ours – training ground is. Me and Sasori's homes are also in the same area.

"Should we go check the area?" I ponder aloud. When Sasori gives me a slow now, we head outside. "I do hope your puppets are working."

"They should be. You?"

"Yeah. I probably need to make more paralyzing senbon though."

During the year I have added three new puppets to my collection. Two of them are slightly modified Karasu and Kuroari whom Sasori had nearly forced me to make. They work efficiently together so I can't really object to their usefulness. The third one is a bird with seals that could launch hundreds of senbon in a rapid succession under its wings. It is fast but its area of attack is small, and it can't really take hits at all. I named it Ho-Oh.

We wander the area for a couple of hours and in the end decide to place the flag on my roof. Nobody would suspect it. The apartment building is surrounded by others just like it.

We find a good place for the flag in the middle of the roof and start moving stuff on the roof to a better formation. I drag the tarps to one pile before focusing on the area in the middle. There is one basket and some other completely innocent pieces of garbage laying there. "Let's go inside. I'll make some trap seals."

"Mm. I think I will set up some diversions."

"Eh, good idea. Don't make them too obvious."

"Of course."

I hurry inside and start working on the seals, making more paralyzing poison at the same time. This version could petrify the victim for up to 12 hours. When I have done couple dozen seals I return to the roof and get them ready, then laying the tarps back on the roof. I add some seals to the basket as well. The first one to touch it would be paralyzed. Only five others to deal with after that…

"I set up three diversions. And they are discreet, no need to ask."

I glance at Sasori who just jumped next to me and nod in satisfaction. "This one's good to go as well. Now we just need to come up with some strategies… Do you want some pancakes?"

"Sure." Sasori nods and follows me to the kitchen. I get the ingredients out and start cooking while the boy sits down at the table. Pancakes are the only recipe I can do without burning half the house down, but at least I can do them well.

"Do you think they're setting up traps also?" Sasori asks when I am turning the first pancake around.

"Probably. If it was all up to Kazuto, he would say they don't need such things but sadly it is not… The others aren't that stupid."

"So, where do you think they will set it up? Ishihara's?"

I shrug. "And they have Sanji too… We need to be careful as not to get caught in his genjutsu. It's starting to be a real pain in the ass and even I can't really keep up with it anymore."

Sasori lets out an agreeing hum.

"So, what do you think their composition will be?" I ask with a sigh.

"Kazuto and Sanji. Terumi and Nozomi. Ayaka and Karura." Sasori lists them right away. "They want to go with the best comps they have, so they will go with the ones they know best. Kazuto and Sanji will be defending since they know we will attack, and Kazuto's the one who wants to face us the most. Ayaka and Karura will attack in the case that we stay back after all, or in case of traps. They are the best at dealing with them. Terumi and Nozomi will provide support… Or maybe try to track us down."

"Sounds believable." I nod as I start setting the table.

"Should we go together or separate? And what about defense?"

I purse my lips. "I got the defense. They shouldn't be able to get too close too fast. But if they do, I will be alarmed about it right away. I could also look into positioning one of my prototypes there… Don't know if that's a safe route to take though. I still don't know how they will act when left alone."

I'm talking about a few puppets I have been trying to "program". The commands attached to them through seals make them fight against enemies. Storing chakra into them is exhausting and I still do not know how they will act in a real situation. When I am looking after them, they work nicely.

"Put them there. If they're going to get killed by some prototype puppets, then they deserve it." Sasori shrugs and bites down into the pancake I gave him. I sit down opposite of him, humming in agreement. "So, we will attack together?"

I nod.

"We have the same old formations or?" Sasori glances at me.

"I guess so. They really are getting good at dodging my senbon though… I need to train more. And… You know what to do if I use Kirisame. We know what to do if the other gets surrounded. And we both know what to do if the other is caught. We must try to free the other, since there's only two of us but if it's impossible then forget it. If we both get caught it's game over."

Sasori nods. I wouldn't have even needed to say any of that. We understand each other well enough without words.

"What about your other prototypes?" Sasori asks as he takes his third pancake from the plate between us. "Are they ready for use?"

"Hmm…" I purse my lips as I think about Ichi's copies that are a bit smaller than it, work individually, and do not have a poisonous tail made of needles. They're only used for distraction and intelligence gathering since they're capable of transmitting images to me, just like Ichi. The images have gotten quite clear, but I can still see them only after I touch them with my chakra. I am working on a way to be able to see through their eyes while they're out and about, though. "I can bring them, but I won't promise anything."

I eat my second pancake in silence. The night has already fallen after we have finished eating, and we move to my room. Sasori unpacks his stuff on the table, and I jump to lay on my bed. Some months ago, my sister's bed had suddenly turned into Sasori's bed after the redhead had slept over a couple times.

"Do you have enough paralyzing senbon?"

I sigh deeply. "…Probably."

"Not good enough."

"Argh… I'm tired," I complain, but get up and wander to the table between the two beds. Sasori is frowning at his stuff and gets up with a sigh.

"I'll go and get more poison. And antidotes. And senbon. I probably need to buy more soon…"

"Me too." I chuckle as I get out a stack of senbon. "I think Yoshida-ojiisan loves us at this point since we give him like half of his earnings each month."

"The correct amount would be somewhere around 7.14%."

"I was joking." I roll my eyes amusedly. Sasori gives me a thin smile. He knows it.

Sasori leaves without a word, leaving me to work with poisoning the senbon. I also need to make more poison but luckily, I find all the ingredients from the house and the greenhouse.

"What's your favorite color?" Sasori asks once he gets back. I glance at him from the corner of my eye. We have developed a bit of a habit of asking each other random questions, especially when he's staying over.

"Red, I believe," I answer as I lay another senbon aside. I don't even need to ask him when he answers his own question:

"Mine too. What about food?"

"Sushi and tempura."

"Hm. I like pancakes."

I chuckle as I glance at the diminishing pile of senbon.

"And your favorite thing to do?"

I stop and think. "That's a hard question. I like to do many things. I like to spend time with you, I like battling and I do like the games we play with the others…"

I quickly finish the last of the senbon and return to lay on my bed before asking Sasori: "Do you want to have a genin team one day?"

Sasori puts down his last senbon. How he does them so fast, I will never understand. "Not really. Brats are annoying."

I succeed in suppressing my fit of laugh into a simple chuckle. "You're a brat yourself."

"Maybe."

Sasori turns off the lights and soon I hear the sheets rustling on the other side of the room. "Do you want one?"

"Hmm… Yeah, I do, but I'm not sure how long I would be able to tolerate them."

"What about becoming the Kazekage?"

"Hell no." I roll my eyes at the ceiling. "Too much burden. I want to be free."

"I could try it. But it's not something you try and throw away, so probably not… Are you afraid of dying?"

The question makes me blink. I had killed myself. "I don't think so."

"I think I am. I'd rather live forever."

"I feel like that would get boring after a while." I yawn towards the ceiling. "And so lonely. You'd be all alone while everyone you get to know just keep on dying around you."

Sasori chuckles. "Maybe so. Aren't you afraid of anything?"

I stare at the ceiling, but my eyelids are feeling heavier and heavier, and I can barely keep them open. "Yeah. I'm afraid of-"

I yawn deeply before I can continue. "Being alone. I'm a hypocrite, aren't I? I don't even care when people close to me die, but still I say I don't want to be alone…"

"Are you sure you're just seven years old?"

I close my eyes. "No."

"I think you were afraid of letting them get close to you," I hear a voice from amidst the darkness before it takes me with it.

»»-««

"You fell asleep while I was talking to you last night."

"Sorry." I yawn as I pass Sasori on my way to the kitchen, absentmindedly trying to run my hand through my hair. I usually have no time to try and brush it – it's way too much work.

I scourge the kitchen cabinets for a while but find nothing edible. I purse my lips.

"It's nine. Let's go to my place and get something to eat before we leave for the game – we can't go and die of starvation during the most important game of our lives, right?"

"Right." I chuckle and quickly pack all the things I would need before following Sasori to his place.

After we have eaten some light breakfast, Sasori spends a few hours trying to teach me how to play shogi, before we finally head to the village center.

"Good morning." Sanji is there to greet us with Kazuto by his side.

"Ready to lose, losers?" The taller of the two smirks, and I hum.

"I'll enjoy wiping that smile off your face. Where are all the girls at?"

"Here!" I hear Terumi's shout and turn my head to see the four girls marching towards us.

"So, you ready to play?" Karura asks with a tense smile. Neither of us answers.

Ayaka hands me a red flag. "I believe the rules are clear to us all. And remember; techniques are fine as long as they don't harm any property. And keep the fighting off the streets, we don't want to harm any people."

Everybody nods and Ayaka starts the timers, giving one of them to me. "You have ten minutes. Flag and jail."

And the six of them disappear. I blink and turn to Sasori who is staring at me with a nearly identical, shocked look as I am staring at him with, only a milder version of it.

"I'll get the flag," I tell him and Sasori nods, hurrying away. We had forgotten the jail completely! If we had remembered, I could have stationed prototypes there as well…

I sigh as I hurry towards my home with the flag in hand. No use in worrying about it now. We probably wouldn't catch anyone anyways… In our games we only rarely catch anyone.

Me and Sasori meet back up atop some building.

"Traps are activated, and the two prototypes are also guarding it."

"The jail is behind Yoshida-ojiisan's place."

I nod and glance at the timer. Two minutes to go. We turn to look towards the village center and I summon three small squirrels, but don't activate them yet. Sasori glances at them and get back to staring at the village. I squint my eyes at the scenery. I see movement on the roofs on the other side of the village.

"This is going to be so different from our usual games."

Sasori nods. Usually, we play during the evenings and nights. Now it's midday. The streets are full of people and the sun is shining brightly, making hiding hard.

The timer goes off. I activate the squirrels and they hurry to obey the commands of the seals attached to them. I have programmed them to look for a blue flag, but I doubt they will get any real results.

"You're not using Ichi yet?" Sasori asks when we jump down from the roof and blend in with the villagers. I shake my head.

"It only lasts for thirty minutes, so I'll use it once we get closer. Those three last longer though I definitely do not trust them to get any results… There are Ayaka and Karura."

I lower my head slightly, watching the duo jumping on the roofs next to the road we're on. We are almost in the middle of the village.

"I'm kind of paranoid of letting them just get past us," Sasori mumbles as we press on, letting them continue towards our area.

"My traps will take care of two people. Trust me a bit more." I chuckle at the boy as we get past the 4th street. "Entering enemy territory… Be on lookout for the other four."

"Nozomi and Terumi might be posing as villagers," Sasori states, and I nod. "You know the girls better than I do; has Terumi gotten any new puppets?"

I shake my head. She is slowly realizing her childhood dream of becoming a puppet master, but her collection consists of three puppets at the moment, all inherited from her family. "Not that I know of. They shouldn't pose a problem. After them, Karura is the easiest and then Ayaka. But those two can do quite powerful wind techniques together…"

"And that leaves the boys. Sanji with his genjutsu and earth style and Kazuto and his wind-blades."

I nod. Sasori suddenly leads me to an alley. "I think I saw Terumi. She is coming right this way."

I nod, immediately understanding what Sasori is thinking about. If Terumi is coming from a certain direction at this point in the game, there is a good chance she is walking away from the flag.

We stop at the mouth of the alley. Terumi is walking on the street, right in front of us. Like in slow motion I see her turn her head towards the alley we are standing in. I let lightning chakra run through my body as I grab Sasori and jump off the alley and onto the roofs. We both stumble to the ground.

"Shit, did she see us…?"

"I don't think so," Sasori mumbles, watching the street carefully over the edge of the flat roof. Then he looks the way Terumi came from. "That way then."

"Wait a second." I gesture for the boy to stop and summon Ichi. Nimbly it runs off and I nod at the redhead. Together we start heading for the village edge.

"He is an idiot," I mumble. Sasori settles for a nod. We are squatting on a roof of some house at the edge of the village, watching the large open area in front of us. "It's not genjutsu, right?"

"It shouldn't be." Sasori sighs. Then he winces and looks behind us. "Someone blew the first trap I made."

I hum. "So, we can assume they have no backup from Ayaka and Karura then… You want to take them head-on?"

Sasori's lips tilt into a small smirk. "Let's show them they're just brats compared to us."

I shoot a few kunai at the duo standing like idiots in the middle of the training ground. In a bush behind them hangs a blue flag.

Kazuto and Sanji dodge the kunai and turn towards us, but I am already on the move. Sasori summons Karasu and Kuroari as I take out an array of shuriken, shooting them at the boys. Kazuto slashes with his swords and dodges them with a blast of wind.

"You really think you can take us just like that?" Kazuto snorts as I charge towards him with my double-bladed knifes in hand.

"Jashin, I hope not." I chuckle. "I would be ashamed of you."

I parry Kazuto's first sword with the knifes, but as he strikes at me with the other one, I need to dodge, backing away from him. Right away I need to hurry away as Sanji's doves get too close to my liking. I throw a few senbon at the birds, but they dodge them easily. Sasori has forced Sanji to fight him but the doves act on their own.

Kazuto slashes at the air with his swords, and sharp gusts of wind fly towards me. I hurry to dodge and back away enough to call Ho-Oh out. The bird takes to the skies and starts shooting its senbon at Kazuto. Kazuto slashes his swords towards it, but the nimble bird dodges the attack easily under my control.

I summon Hachi and Manda, slowly starting to force Kazuto under Ho-Oh with their help. I am about to succeed when I sense something charging towards me from behind me. I jump to the side and my back meets Sasori's back. I immediately sense the state his chakra is in, and free him from Sanji's genjutsu.

"Looks like you fell for our little trap. Now we just need to entertain you until the girls get your flag," Terumi greets us with Nozomi at her side.

"They destroyed Karasu and Kuroari the moment I got caught," Sasori reports as we study the situation. My three puppets are slowly moving to surround Kazuto, and he hasn't noticed anything yet.

"You want mine?"

"Tch. I still have my own tricks but thanks anyways," Sasori grumbles and summons now four puppets. I launch the senbon from Ho-Oh. Kazuto rises his sword and strikes down, making the senbon fly away from him. At the same moment Hachi flies towards him but Nozomi's fireball forces me to take it out of the way. Manda dives under the hard ground. I succeed in summoning Hebi, and it quickly follows after Manda. I have controlled four puppets only in training, and even then, it had ended questionably.

"Why not just give up?" Kazuto taunts as he charges at me. Behind me Nozomi is getting ready for another fire attack. I think quickly. Up, I would be completely vulnerable to their attacks. Forward, Kazuto would slash me open. Right, I would get into the middle of the other fight going on. Kazuto seems to be ready to move left any second due to this posture. Which leaves…

Nozomi's fireball flies towards me. I let myself drop almost flat on the ground, feeling the heat on my back, before I charge at her with Hachi and Ho-Oh backing me. I raise one of my knives to my mouth with a chakra thread connected to my little finger and get ready to strike it at Nozomi at the same time as Manda raises from the ground to wrap around Nozomi. It succeeds in locking the girl in place. I spit out the knife and tackle the already paralyzed girl to the ground.

I move Manda to get the girl farther away from the fight, and doge Terumi's snake-like puppet. I let go of Manda and let the puppet stay around Nozomi. While Terumi's puppets keep me occupied, Kazuto attacks Ho-Oh, succeeding in destroying it. I grunt. I only have Hebi and Hachi in my hands.

I feel my own trap going off. So, Ayaka and Karura have gotten to it… I need to jump up when Terumi's snake attacks me once again. Kazuto sees his moment and charges at me. I throw Hachi between me and the boy, but suddenly I feel someone else attack onto my puppet. The interruption surprises me and succeeds in disturbing me enough so that Hachi cannot reach us fast enough anymore.

I see the smile on Kazuto's face as his swords get closer and closer to my chest. They're ready to kill me, and I have no way of moving… Something grabs me and pulls me to the side. I recognize that chakra. It's Sasori's. Chakra threads?

My thoughts don't quite keep up with my actions as I get out a scroll and summon Mamoru. Sasori lets go of me and I use the shield of the puppet to change my direction in the air. Now I am charging at the helpless Kazuto. He cannot do anything as I strike a few senbon deep into his back.

I roll around a few times on the ground and get up. I let Hachi go since its tentacles have become a complete mess – Terumi probably interrupted it with her own chakra threads. I turn to look at Sasori's fight against Sanji and Terumi. Sanji's doves are circling overhead them, their feathers falling all around the redhead.

Terumi has three puppets out, while Sasori has double the amount. The ground around them is fractured, and when I turn to look at them, Sanji sends several spears made of ground and rock towards Sasori. One of his puppets shatters the spears with its sword. It has to take enormous amount of concentration to be able to control six puppets to keep the other two in check, and at the same time he has to keep dodging the doves. And yet, from amidst all that, he could help me.

I glance at the blue flag hanging unguarded in the bush, and charge to help Sasori. I make a few hand seals on the way. "Suiton: Suiben!"

A water whip whisks through the air and wraps around Terumi. I send lightning chakra through it, but she succeeds in cutting the whip with her puppets. I squint as two puppets start circling me. I could use… I glance at Sasori. He knows, what to do. Ram, dog, rat. "Hijutsu: Kirisame."

The blazing heat of the sun seems to mock my attempt for a second, but then a rain shower hits us. Terumi's and Sasori's puppets fall to the ground, and while Terumi is left blinking in confusion, Sasori jumps back, shooting poisoned senbon at Sanji. I charge forward, striking my senbon at the still shocked Terumi and leading Hebi out of the ground to shoot its senbon at Sanji's back. Terumi falls to the ground, quickly followed by Sanji who cannot dodge two surprising attacks.

I turn to look at the work we have done and grin at Sasori. "That was some nice going right there! Pick the puppets up for me, would you?"

Without waiting for an answer I charge for the blue flag and then towards the village center as quickly as possible.

"My traps were activated," I announce when Sasori catches up to me. "At least one of them should be paralyzed and the other one slowed down by my puppets and traps… But it doesn't hurt to be careful."

Sasori nods. We should hurry. And that we do, running over the roofs side by side.

In the area in front of the Kazekage building we run into two girls. They are just coming from where my house is, one of them carrying a red flag.

"Looks like they won." Karura smiles. Ayaka sighs and puts the red flag into her chest pocket.

There are few shinobi on the yard. Me and Sasori glance at each other. I nod at the words I see in his eyes and charge at the Kazekage building with lightning chakra enveloping me and making me faster. I am already few meters up the building's side when Ayaka and Karura react. They're both about to charge after me, but right at that moment Sasori raises his hands, his chakra threads locking the two in place. For how long, is a completely different thing – controlling humans is so much harder than controlling puppets, especially when they do not want it.

I run up the wall and land on the roof. We won. I let out a long breath as I get up. And freeze.

"…Hello?" I say carefully. I seem to be face-to-face with the third and the fourth Kazekage. The future Kazekage and my sensei opens his mouth just as Sasori, Karura, and Ayaka appear behind me. They go through the same moment of staring that I went through a moment ago.

"We need to talk, Kuroyuri. And Sasori too," Rasa announces calmly. I don't bother asking if we have done something wrong. Fighting inside the village must be prohibited in some rules.

"You two, get out of here." The third Kazekage needs to only look at the girls, and Ayaka and Karura hurry to obey. I glance at Sasori when he steps next to me. For a moment everything is quiet as the older duo just watches us.

"What is it?" Sasori is the first one to finally speak up.

"We're doing some adjustments to your teams. We have been watching these little games of yours and I believe it will make for a more efficient combination," the Kazekage explains.

"We," I mumble under my breath. It is weird to even think about someone like our Kazekage being interested in the games of few genins – and a chuunin. I mean, nobody ever saw him anywhere.

"Yes. I will lead the new team Rasa, and you two will make for its members along with Kazuto, while the other three will make another team," my sensei explains. I feel like Sanji would feel like he is left out. But I understand Kazuto is a much better teammate for us than Sanji who uses genjutsu. "I will meet you all tomorrow at nine at the village entrance. Dismissed."