Hi Everyone! I'm really excited about this arc and I hope you enjoy some of the mythos I'm building about the Maidens. I promise there's more to come throughout this arc. That being said, thank you all so much for the feedback you have been sending my way. It's very encouraging, and I especially appreciate those of you who take the time to let me know what arcs, character and plot developments, etc you like the most. I take this stuff into consideration when I'm planning and it helps to know where I'm strong. One more note before I let you loose: I'll be on hiatus until sometime late next week. You can still contact me via PM and I'll still check my emails, but I'll be out of town and unable to access a real computer. Till next time and hope to hear from you all soon!

Beads of sweat trickled down Beki's spine as she watched the rise and fall of Hinata and Ren's chests as they breathed peacefully in their sleep. The room was stifling, or at least it was for Beki. The heater vent was pointed directly at her no matter how she adjusted in her futon. She was afraid if she got up and dragged the mat around it would wake up the other girls. They had stayed up so late talking with her. Beki had apologized to Hinata and told her and Ren about the plan she had come up with Yasahiro.

She was fairly sure she had dozed off for a little bit at some point, because she was wide awake. Her body was so alert it was like she had ice cold water dumped on her. Beki wished someone had doused her with cold water because then at least she wouldn't be sweating like a sinner in church. The night sky was brightening. It was near dawn. Giving up on getting any more rest that night, Beki rolled out of her futon and dressed herself with the silence and swiftness befitting a kunoichi. She tiptoed out the door and down the hallway. The hotel staff were all sleepily milling about but seemed to take no notice of her as she walked out into the chilly morning air.

The briskness that greeted her outside was refreshing and brought a sense of freedom at escaping the claustrophobic muggy hotel room. Beki opened her mouth wide and breathed like she was fogging up a window. Her breath steamed the air and she smiled. Beki loved the winter.

From all the years rolling into towns in the wee hours of the day with her dad over the years, Beki knew that there was always a place or two that catered to the early risers or the really late night owls. She stood in the middle of the abandoned street and took a deep whiff of the morning air. She smelled fresh bread baking and smiled. Beki followed her nose two streets over and found a bakery that locals were already trickling in and out of. There was a line of three people, all too sleepy to pay her much mind. When she reached the counter, however, the baker's smile melted into a poker face.

"Can I help you?"

There was not a touch of courtesy in his tone. Beki figured it was because she was a foreigner and they knew she would be competing in the exams. She ignored his tone and ordered herself a cup of coffee and a Danish. The baker made a point of setting it on the counter for her to pick up and not handing it to her the way he had with his other customers. Beki thanked him and walked out with a sigh. Only a month of this, Beki, and you can go home.

She went back to her favorite spot overlooking the mountain range. It was serenely quiet in that part of town, and the clouds were hanging low on the mountains so Beki was looking down on them from her perch. A small smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. Today she was on top of the world. She ate her cheese Danish and sipped on her coffee while saying a silent thank you for not being able to sleep. Watching the sun crest the mountain peaks and light up the sea of clouds was surreal. Beki knew that moments like this were the ones that clung to you like lint on a sweater. Once you had them no one could take those kind of memories away.

She heard the kick coming and moved out of the way long before it had a chance to connect. Beki was up on her feet and faced her assailants with a kunai in hand. Three teenage boys, a little older than her, with their faces concealed behind masks stood before her.

"You've got a lot of nerve, Moonie," They spat. "You ask me, showing your face around here is cause enough to earn you a beating."

"I'm a competitor in the chunin exams," Beki said as calmly as she could manage given she had instantly gone from a pleasant morning to impending danger. "You guys are obviously Kumo shinobi. You start something with me, it'll make a lot of problems for your kage."

"Who gives a shit?" The shortest boy stepped forward. "If we toss your ass over the cliff people will just think it's an accident."

"I'm not going over that cliff," The cold familiar chill of her skin clamming up crept down her spine. She watched in cautious relief as the boys' faces changed from violent confidence to uncertainty. Maybe going Drowned Maiden would be enough to scare them off. Crying out for help was no good; it was obvious that she was unpopular in this neighborhood and anyone who showed up was just as likely to help her attackers as they were to rescue her.

Instead of getting scared off, they all lunged at once. They were angry so their strikes weren't very precise. It was short work for Beki to deflect them, however their rage gave them a ferocious strength and persistence she had trouble matching with so little sleep to support her. In moments they had her surrounded and were closing in. Her best bet was to take one of them down and make a break for it. The tall one was the least skilled of the three, so Beki lunged and took his knees out. Before he had even hit the ground she was running as fast as she could and the other two were after her.

They must be really angry, Beki thought. The two boys didn't even stop to check on their fallen comrade. She ran into a fork and headed left, figuring that the two would split up at the junction and give her a chance to blitz the one that was on her tail. The sun was barely up and Beki had already found herself in trouble. In a strange way, the adrenaline was giving her a clarity of thought she rarely experienced. Her mind was cold and detached from the danger she was in. Instead of panicking or thinking of solutions, she was already considering what precautions she would have to take the next time she went out.

There was a wagon up ahead. Beki dove behind one of the wheels so someone passing by could easily miss her. Her instincts had been correct. A few moments later, heavy footfalls approached her and immediately passed her, revealing one of her attacker's backs as he headed off down the street to look for her. Beki chuckled softly to herself once he was out of sight and stepped out of her hiding place. She sighed and shook her head as she turned to head back to the hotel.

The third boy was there. Beki had no idea how he could have found her or how he could have possibly snuck up on her undetected. He grabbed her shoulder in her moment of shock and pulled her toward the knife he held at his side. She subconsciously tensed in preparation of the blade parting flesh. Time slowed as her body followed the trajectory of the pull and beneath the throb of her blood rushing in her ears she heard a series of thwacks, like a hammer hitting meat. The thug instantly went slack and collapsed on the ground. Beki found herself stumbling over his collapsed form into Neji. He caught her arm and helped her regain her balance.

"Shit, Neji," Beki looked down at the thug, foam creeping out of his slack jaw. "Thank god you showed up. I don't know how he got the drop on me-"

The look he gave her instantly shut her up. Beki had seen the same face on her father before. It was a mix of anger, disappointment, and worry, wherein the danger had passed so the anger/disappointment combo outweighed the "I'm so glad you're okay" part.

"What were you thinking," Neji shook her by her arm and then released her. "Going off by yourself, not telling anyone where you were going, and wandering around an isolated location?! You're lucky I'm an early riser, Beki."

"Look, everything was fine till those jerks showed up," Beki motioned for him to start walking with her. They wouldn't want anyone seeing them with a KO'd Kumo shinobi. "I just got put between a rock and a hard place because I seem to be really unpopular around here and I was worried if I yelled for help it would make a bigger problem."

"First of all," Neji poked her in the sternum. "You aren't going anywhere alone again. Second of all, we can come up with some kind of signal. That way only our allies will know to respond."

"Like what, a bird call?" Beki furrowed her brow. "I can do a mourning dove, but that could just as easily be a real bird and not a distress call."

Neji thought for a moment. "Can you whistle?"

Beki gave a weak little whistle. Her dad could do entire operas whistling but the gene had somehow obviously missed her.

"That was pathetic." Neji gave her the side eye.

"Whistling is not an essential shinobi skill," She folded her arms defensively. "Isn't the point to be silent?"

"Here," Neji held up his fingers. "Do this."

Beki followed his lead in making an oval with her thumb and forefinger.

"Now put your fingers right underneath the tip of your tongue," Neji watched her. "No, all the way to the first knuckle. There you go."

"Wow whuh?" Beki hoped there were no more finger yoga moves.

"Just blow," Neji sighed.

Beki let out one shrill piercing note. Neji cringed initially but then sighed. "Good. That can be our signal. If you're ever in trouble, just whistle and I'll come running."

"You're a good teacher," Beki smiled. "My dad's been trying to teach me how to whistle worth a damn for years."

"I'm sure out of everything you've learned in Konoha, that will be your shining moment," Neji said with the straightest face he could muster.

…

The town was starting to get busier. The slow trickle of competitors and their chaperones over the last few days gave way to the influx of tourists eager to see the Kumogakure chunin exams. The hotels were practically spilling over and the first portion of the exam wouldn't even begin for another few days. Beki, the other Getsu nin, and the Konoha shinobi all had decided to camp out in their hotel and make as few trips into town as possible. Daiske had been picking up food for them and had creepy old women rubbing on him for luck. When the girls tried to make the food runs, they were met with similar unsettling encounters with the tourists.

Their hotel had a rooftop garden complete with comfortable chairs and warm blankets laid out for guests. The plants were all dormant and their skeletal fingers reached out toward the silvery sky, as pleading for warmth as the guests trapped under the hotel's roof. When they first checked in, the teams allowed each other into their space. They even gave in to mingling with one another. The young Konoha teams would hover around Team 8 and Team Gai to glean wisdom about the exams. Yuu would wander away from Bo and Shinichi to chat with the Konoha crew and Team Honey as well, however, the closer the date grew towards the first exam, the more space the teams tried to give one another. It was on the morning three days until the first test when Beki found herself completely ignored by the hotel staff after they had literally served everyone else on the deck.

At first she had just believed the strange and unwelcoming treatment she received from the locals was because she was an outsider. This theory was refuted time and time again at the hotel when staff would simply ignore her in favor of her peers. She was stewing on what reason they all could possibly have for despising her when Yasahiro walked up with two cups of coffee.

"Yasahiro," Beki gave him a quizzical look. "Why does everyone around here seem to want me dead?"

Yasahiro sighed, handed her the spare cup of coffee, and sat down on the chair next to her.

"I guess it's time we had that talk about your mom."

Beki sipped on the coffee and rotated in her seat so she was supporting herself on the arm closest to her uncle. She had a feeling this would be a long story.

"So your mom was a rising star on the shinobi scene in Getsu. She was raised at the shrine and had been trained with the intention of making her head priestess when she came of age," Yasahiro began.

"Then how did she become a kunoichi?" Beki asked. "You're supposed to start at the academy at five, so if she was a young woman then how-"

Yasahiro held up his hand. "Do you want me to tell you the story or not?"

Beki sighed. "Go on,"

Yasahiro cleared his throat and continued: "During the last shinobi war, many of Getsu's able bodied shinobi were on the mainland participating in the conflict. That unfortunately left us open to raiding parties from the coast. Ships were raiding the coastal towns from the mainland because they believed we had great treasure amassed in the capital."

"Which is not true," Beki adjusted in her seat.

"They didn't know that, though," Yasahiro nodded. "So they had cleaned out most of the coastal towns and were on their way toward the capital. They had to go through the mountain pass near the Village of Gods and Demons, and in doing so, they had to go by the shrine. All the priests and priestesses wanted to do was pray. Your mother apparently decided it was her job to stop the raiders."

Beki shook her head. "Wait. She was a priestess in training. How was she going to do that?"

"Your mother had been born completely attuned with and in control of her kekke genkai," Yasahiro explained. "Not only that, she demonstrated an evolved form of the Drowned Maiden never before seen: she didn't just manipulate water, she controlled ice and snow."

Beki sat expectantly for him continue. She knew her mother had been an ice user but she hadn't thought to connect it to their kekke genkai. It was interesting that her mother had an evolved form of the Drowned Maiden but that gene hadn't passed on to her. Maybe it was because Beki's father was firey in nature, so fire plus ice equaled water.

"The confirmed kill count was 52," Yasahiro whirled the coffee in his mug. "They only found one of the raiders alive, huddled in a cave. He talked about a sudden snowstorm overtaking the men, and a beautiful maiden dancing and singing in the snow. When they approached her, her hair turned white and she turned them all to solid ice with a touch."

Beki stared into her cup. "What did they do with the ice men?"

Yasahiro sighed. "Nothing. Your mom smashed them with a ceremonial naginata and danced on them. That's how the cavalry found her: a beautiful shrine maiden singing and dancing among the frozen remains of a small army."

Beki stared at him wide eyed. He couldn't be talking about her mom. Beki remembered Yukihana; she had kind eyes and a sweet singing voice. The woman was breathtakingly beautiful and danced like flowers on the wind. She had rocked Beki to sleep and always held her hand like she was afraid Beki would fall through the earth without it. Yasahiro took her silence as an invitation to keep talking.

"The priests and priestesses were horrified and frightened by her power, so she was cast out of the shrine," Yasahiro said. "Fortunately, the king was very impressed by her prowess and instated her as a shinobi on the spot. Your father had volunteered to be her mentor, to teach her about the ways of a Getsu shinobi-"

"And to keep an eye on her?" Beki asked.

Yasahiro nodded. "That especially."

"So how does that relate to how people treat me in Kumogakure?" Beki pressed.

"Well," Yasahiro sighed. "Your mother and father participated in the chunin exams here…" His voice trailed off and Beki's eyes grew wide with realization.

"Please don't tell me my mother was dancing on frozen corpses during the chunin exams?"

Yasahiro looked off to the side. "She was juggling their heads."

Beki's jaw dropped and she shook her head. "No. You're messing with me. My mom would never-"

Yasahiro put a hand on her shoulder. "I know this all comes as a shock to you, especially because this is the first you've heard of it."

"My father would have told me if my mother was a homicidal sociopath-" Beki realized she had raised her voice. She was catching unwanted attention from the other guests on the roof, so she dropped her voice low before she continued: "I know my mom broke up the family or whatever but she wasn't a bad person. It was love-"

Yasahiro held up a hand for her to wait. "Beki, you asked me why the people in Kumogakure treated you the way they did. That's the answer. Your mother fought in the chunin exams here and slaughtered their sons and daughters and shamed their village during their own exams. Not a single one of their competitors made it to the third portion. Hardly anyone made it to the third portion."

"Did she win then?" Beki asked. "If she was so devastating, she won, right?"

Yasahiro shook his head. "No. Your father shut her down. He was probably the only person who ever lived who could have stopped your mother on a rampage."

"Except Orochimaru," Beki kicked at the deck.

Yasahiro chuckled. "We never did find the body."

Beki shot him a look and he shut up. He had said too much. He sighed and tried to redirect the conversation.

"Look, think of it this way: Your mother was the absolute best. Orochimaru didn't go after stray sheep, he went after the most promising shinobi. Your mother earned herself a few titles at those exams, some of which you'll still get a shudder out of the locals if they hear them: Snow Witch, Yukionna, Bloody Priestess-"

Beki waved her hand. "I get it. I get it. Thank you for enlightening me as to why everyone in Kumogakure wants to toss me in a wood chipper. My mom was a murderess."

"That's a matter of perspective, really," Yasahiro leaned back in his chair. "Your mother's performance was like nothing Getsu had ever put out before. As shameful as it was for a militaristic village like Kumogakure to be beaten in their own games, it brought a ton of clients to Getsugakure. She was in the Bingo Book for a while, you know."

Beki stared into the dregs of her lukewarm coffee. She took one last swig, swallowing the bitterness with a grimace. "So what do I do?"

Yasahiro gave her a sly smile. "There's more than one way to glory, you know. Your mother recognized that. Remember our plan to help you get Shinichi off your back once and for all? You could do well to take a page out of your mother's book."

Beki shook her head and gave him an irritated look. "Can you stop talking in riddles? This conversation has worn through my patience."

"Your cousin is the noble heir of the Tsukimori clan, the undisputed firstborn son of the patriarch," Yasahiro smiled. "Why try to out Tsukimori him when you can make a name for yourself where you would be uncontested?"

Beki was having trouble seeing his point. She rolled her wrists to let him know to get to the point.

"Go full Asou," Yasahiro explained. "Your mom, people were terrified of her. She would walk down the street and smile at someone and they would run home. Bars would clear out when she sat at the counter. People have a sick fascination with things they're afraid of, look at those creeps who study serial killers. No one has seen an Asou fight for more than ten years. They may not be rooting for you but people will come to see you fight, and if you win you can hop on that infamy train your mother rode to success."

"So be an asshole and kill as many people as possible," Beki gave him the side eye. "Pass, thanks."

Yasahiro shook his head. "Your mother was mean, spiteful, bitter, and cruel. You are not any of those things. But the psychological warfare she played, you are capable of that. On the full moon, she would go out and dance where everyone could see her for luck. They thought she was invoking dark spirits or something. Go Drowned Maiden as much as possible. Be a scary little baby priestess."

Beki sighed. "I don't know how to do that," Beki sighed. Yasahiro squeezed her shoulder.

"Could you try?"

Beki looked into her uncle's eyes. They were like her father's but they lacked the dark circles and the general exhaustion that robbed them of their sparkle.

"Okay. I'll try."

He smiled. "Alright, sport. I'll do what I can to help you along. This old man might have a few good tricks left up his sleeve."

Beki cocked her head. "Why are you helping me and not Shinichi? He's the clan heir, right?"

Yasahiro sighed. "Because deep down you are a good person. You're stronger than people give you credit and you have your priorities straight. Shinichi is the prince of his own little delusions and wouldn't know common sense if it slapped him across the face."

Beki smiled. "Thanks, Yasahiro. So what should I do when the staff ignore me around here?"

"Smile at them, as big as you can," Yasahiro's eyes sparkled mischievously. "That always worked for Yukihana."