Hi everyone. Before I start this next chapter I just wanted to answer a question I periodically get about this story. Naruto is going to be in ToTM. I was trying to time his arrival in my story to his return in Tallman's, but when I hit my predetermined stopping point (Ch 18) Tallman was nowhere near finishing his next chapter. Rather than go on hiatus myself I decided to keep putting out content and developing this story. I thank you for your patience. I don't want to spoil anything but know that Naruto will be making his return in my story soon. That being said, please enjoy this next chapter and know that I really appreciate your feedback. Hearing from you all makes me very happy and helps me guide the development of both my story and my writing overall.

"Congratulations," Tsunade's tone was measured. The mix of confusion and shock on Beki's face forced Tsunade to keep her own emotions about the situation in check. "I was under the impression you didn't have a lot field experience."

Beki shook her head. "When I said that, I was talking about 'real' missions. You know, not helping with harvests and basically being an underage moving service."

Tsunade folded her hands on her desk. "It's an honor to be nominated to enter in the chunin exams."

"Thank you," Beki bowed. "I'm grateful you passed on this information."

"I also wanted to let you know a few of our genin have met the qualifications for this year's exam," Tsunade explained. "Just between us, the journey to the Cloud Village is long and at times dangerous. When the time comes, we'll be sending a few teams along to protect the genin on their way."

"You'll be sending me along with them?" Beki asked.

"Yes," Tsunade nodded. "I'm not sure if your father has heard the news. He sent word two days ago that he was on his way to Konoha. You have two months until the exams. Perhaps your father will be able to join you?"

Beki smiled. "I hope so. Thanks for the heads up, Tsunade sama."

…

"Well that's exciting," Hinata smiled as she sprinkled food into the fishbowl. "Are you going to head back to Getsu to train with your team?"

Beki shook her head. "There's only two months until the exams. By the time I got home we'd have about four weeks to train. It would be more effective for us to train independently and then meet up at the exams."

Hinata gave a slight frown of concern. "You have been away from your teammates for over a year now, Beki. How is that going to work?"

"We were each highly specialized. Daiske was set up and defense, Ren is a sniper, and I'm the bruiser. If we just train in our specialties the teamwork should come back like riding a bike." Beki explained.

Hinata nodded but in her head she was worried. The chunin exams were testing even for the most skilled of shinobi and the most coordinated of teams. Hinata would usually just cheer Beki on but with the chunin exams, death was on the table. This would be no exercise where they would call it if someone got hurt. Beki was taking far too casual of an attitude about the situation at hand.

"Have you ever seen chunin exams, Beki?" Hinata asked, keeping her tone measured.

"No," Beki shook her head. "But I know what the stakes are. If this were a year ago, I'd be worried. Now that I can become the Drowned Maiden, I have a bit of an ace up my sleeve."

"So where is it this year, the Cloud Village?" Hinata put a kettle on for tea.

Beki rapped her knuckles on the table. "Yes. The Cloud Village in the dead of winter. It gets awful snowy up there."

"It almost seems like they're trying to scare people off," Hinata commented as she took out some mugs.

"The Cloud shinobi are hardasses in the classic sense. They won't pull any punches for the sake of taking it easy on outsiders or attracting tourists. For them, the chunin exams are in their purest form; a true test of shinobi prowess in the harshest conditions."

"It doesn't sound like anyone would want to go watch," Hinata said.

Beki leaned forward on the table and smiled. "Not necessarily. See, the other villages know how the Cloud Village treats the exams, so there's a lot less of the babies competing. They aren't sending the 11 year olds who just barely qualify. Chunin exams are held bi-annually, so they send the genin who didn't quite or would have just barely made the cut the year before."

"So they have extra time to train," Hinata nodded. "Makes sense."

"They also send less candidates. Instead of the starting count being in the 80s to 90s, it'll be in the 40s."

Hinata shook her head. "If you've never seen chunin exams, how do you know all this?"

Beki smiled. "I spent a couple of months in the Cloud when I was younger. They were planning for the following year and Dad had to explain it all to me."

"How are you going to prepare then?" Hinata poured the hot water over the teabags.

Beki smiled at her sheepishly. "Train like hell and pack a sweater."

…

It had rained hard for the last few days. The storms had been cold and bitter and had made the already dark forests near unnavigable. Seiichiro had trekked through worse but the wet sucking noise his boots made each time he picked up his feet in the ankle deep mud was driving him crazy. The incessant chatter of the birds had been cheerful once the rain had stopped, however after a full day of high pitched chirping Seiichiro decided he wasn't so crazy about birdsong. The weather had slowed his movement, adding to his irritation.

The King had sent word to Seiichiro about Beki's nomination as the boat was pulling away from the harbor. One of his messengers called out the news to him from the shore. Although Beki had qualified for the exams a year before, the news that she would be attending the chunin exams when stationed in another ninja village was suspicious to say the least. There was discord aplenty in the capital. It was clear from the whisperings in the alleyways and shared in hushed tones behind the hands of noblemen that great machinations were underway. It had been many years since the last ninja war and many seemed to think that these incidents would be the tipping point. Voices were already being raised in favor of increasing the presence of standing troops in the capital and pulling in high value assets to garrison in the capital. Seiichiro had advised the king against that as it would create the wrong impression amidst the talks with other villages. He proposed a subtler approach: an increase in reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. It was clear someone wasn't a fan and was trying to send Seiichiro a message. He had gone out of his way to have Beki stationed in Konoha instead of the capital while he worked on the deal with Tsunade. Obviously this "someone" hadn't missed Seiichiro's intent to keep Beki out of the politics. They wanted him to know that they had the ability to pluck her from the nest and send her right into the trenches.

Chunin exams in the Cloud Village were intense and would be full of threats to Beki's life but Seiichiro was confident she would survive. His greatest concerns were the exposure she would receive as the last known Drowned Maiden. Potential clients and representatives of every village attended the exams to support their candidates and scope out the competition. It would be very easy for Orochimaru or anyone with equal evil intent to slip in with the masses and do some damage. The second threat Seiichiro had nagging at him was the identity or identities of his enemies back home. If Beki survived the chunin exam, or worse, won, his unknown opponents could have her sent on high risk assignments alone. As much as he wanted to see his daughter kick the asses of a bunch of puffed up teenagers and make Getsu look good, Seiichiro needed to get back to Getsu as soon as possible. He had some rats to snuff out.

Fifteen years ago, while Yuki was still around, that would have meant killing them. Setting up a situation where they attacked and then taking them down in self-defense. Seiichiro was older now, smarter, and more cautious. He would just need to gather evidence of something salacious, like an affair with another nobleman's wife, embezzlement, or blackmail. He would then hand the information over to the most responsible party and let the system work for him.

Seiichiro sighed and smiled to himself in spite of the strands of hair plastered to his face and the mud seeping into his boots. Yukihana. He had attended the chunin exams with her in the Cloud Village many years ago. If she knew how closely Beki was following in their footsteps she would have laughed. "Fate follows our families," she would have said with a smile. The smile faded from Seiichiro's lips. True as those words were, Fate was cruel. It had claimed his wife and with news of Beki's recommendation to attend the exams Seiichiro felt the fingers of Fate reaching out for his daughter. Thin, wispy little tendrils of Death grasping for her tender little throat. Seiichiro clenched his fists. Not again. Never again.

…

Seiichiro hadn't had the chance to put down his bag in his room at the inn when he heard a knock on the door. Before he could answer it, Beki popped her head in.

"Hey pops," she smiled. God, how much she had grown. She was looking more and more like her mother every day, especially when she smiled. It was the same lopsided grin with the matching mischief in the eyes.

"How did you find out I was here?" Seiichiro tossed his bag on the floor. "I don't think the Hokage even knows yet."

Beki shrugged. "I may know like, 80% of the kindergarteners in this town. They're a loyal bunch."

Seiichiro shook his head and chuckled. "Do you buy their loyalty with candy?"

"And ninja info cards," she smiled. "Good to see you, Dad. Could we maybe do dinner tonight after you get settled in?"

He eyed her suspiciously. "I'm happy to see you, too, but you're acting like you're trying to avoid something. Hyugas not treating you well?"

Beki shook her head and sighed. "Excessively well. They have me join them for family game night every Saturday."

"That doesn't sound so bad to me," Seiichiro ran the sink for the water to get warm. "I wish we could have done such a thing in my family."

"Yeah, it's all well and good, but you don't know what kind of games they play-" Beki protested but Seiichiro held up a hand.

"Beki, I have to immediately go and see the Hokage. I'll come by the Hyuga compound to pick you up when we're finished. Deal?"

Beki sighed. "Deal."

…

"Alright, Beki, I think they should be all set up by now," Hinata smiled warmly. "Are you ready for family game night?"

Beki had to pinch herself to keep herself from smiling. "No, Hinata, I'm so sorry but my dad just got into town and we're going to do dinner."

The smile fell off of Hinata's face so hard Beki almost heard it splatter on the floor. "B-but it's family game night, Beki. We always do family game night."

It was almost unbearable for Beki not to smile now. "I know, it's such a shame, but what can I do?"

Hinata looked sadly at the floor and then lit up like the morning sun. "You could have your dad come to game night!" Beki gave her a crestfallen look. "I know it's totally unheard of for not just one, but TWO outsiders to be joining us, but I'm sure my father will understand."

"No, Hinata, that's just not going to work-" Beki tried to explain.

"She doesn't want to go to game night," Neji had slipped in the door so quietly neither girl had noticed. "She's trying to be polite."

Hinata looked from Neji to Beki with a look of shock. "Beki, is this true?"

Beki sighed at the tiny note of pain in Hinata's voice. "Look, Hina chan, it's not the family game night I don't like. It's the games."

"What's wrong with the games we play?" Hinata was almost pouting. To Beki she looked like a child who had been told their drawing did not even remotely resemble what they intended.

"Think of it this way: why might I not enjoy playing hide and seek and I spy with your family?" Beki thought maybe if Hinata thought of the problem herself it would be easier to understand Beki's point of view.

Hinata considered a moment and her eyes clung to the floor. "I suppose because you don't have ocular jutsu you might feel…disadvantaged."

"I spy something…green!" Beki pantomimed. "Oh, I've got it, it's a caterpillar on a maple tree five hundred meters to the southwest. That's right! Good job!"

"Ocular jutsu aside, there's still the hula hooping competition," Neji countered, to which Beki just narrowed her eyes.

"Neji, who won the hula hooping competition last week?"

Neji looked away and flushed. "I did."

Beki leaned in and narrowed her eyes further. "How long were you hula hooping?"

"Ten minutes straight," Neji's eyes traveled up to the ceiling and stayed there.

"How many hula hoops were you using at once?" Beki folded her arms triumphantly, knowing her point was made before he even spoke."

"Seven," Neji sighed. "Alright, we understand that family game night may not be as much fun for you as it is for us."

"I love spending time with your family and the food is amazing," Beki explained. "I just need a night off every once in a while. You know, to give me some healthy perspective."

"On what?" Hinata asked.

"Just that I'm not a loser for not being able to keep up with you guys in children's games," Beki smiled. "That's all."

Hinata sighed and picked up the lime jello bundt cake she had made for game night. "Let's go, Neji. I hope you have a nice dinner with your father."

"Thanks guys! See you later!" Beki waved at them, finally able to express the joy she felt on dodging the family night bullet. Just as they opened the door to leave, one of the gate keepers had been preparing to knock. "Miss Tsukimori's father is here for her."

"Perfect timing!" Beki leapt out of her seat. "See you all later!"

…

Seiichiro slapped Beki's hand away from his plate. "When the man asked if you wanted fries, you said 'no'."

"I know, but then you got some and I can smell them." Beki held eye contact with her father for a long moment before attempting another theft. Seiichiro threw a fry at her face.

"That's all you're getting, unless you order your own," Her father gave her a challenging look, daring her to try to steal more of his food.

"So, uh, you and mom went to the chunin exams in the Cloud Village," Beki nibbled on her one allotted fry. "What advice can you give me?"

Seiichiro leaned back in his seat and sighed. "Pack a sweater."

Beki rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know it's cold there in winter. I mean in terms of what should I be focusing on in my training?"

"All the work you've been doing with the kanabo will be virtually useless," Seiichiro explained. "You'd be better off training exclusively with your mother's gauntlets. Cloud shinobi are really into close quarters combat. I wouldn't be surprised if they set things up in such a way as to force it."

Beki laughed. "You know what's so strange to me? When I was in the academy, all my teachers said that the moment two shinobi had to engage one on one, the mission was failed."

Seiichiro nodded. "The theory is that a good shinobi should conduct their mission undetected. Having to engage with enemy shinobi means that even if the mission is a success, you were flushed out. They know who you are and they'll be looking for you next time."

"So it may not have any immediate consequences but in the long run it'll affect your chances of being successful?" Beki asked.

"That's exactly it," Seiichiro explained. "The Cloud shinobi, however, specialize in hand to hand combat. That means if they're the ones to catch you on a mission you are going to have a very bad time."

"They celebrate shinobi who can keep up with them," Beki traced the grain of the wood on the table. "Do you think I'll have trouble?"

Seiichiro shook his head without hesitation. "Your squad is a hit squad and you're the bruiser. Compared to other teams from Getsu that they might have sent, yours is in a unique position in that there's a fair balance of ranged and close quarters combat."

"Could you maybe help me train?" Beki gave her father a pleading look. "I don't want to advertise it, but I'm kind of freaked out. I remember Uncle Aye and his shinobi. They were tougher than anyone else I've ever met."

Seiichiro chuckled softly to himself. "I've met a few Mist ninja who could've held their own in that regard." Seiichiro stared at his plate for a moment and then sighed. "Yes, I'll train you. If nothing else I'll give you some guidance on how to carry on your training after I leave. I can't give you too much of an advantage."

Beki smiled. "I understand. Thanks, Dad."

Seiichiro took a moment just to enjoy his wife's smile on his daughter's face. It made him feel warm inside and full of hope. He loved his daughter, so much so in fact that when Beki's hand slid across the table he didn't slap it away when she stole a small fistful of fries.