We had one month to prepare for the next stage of the exams, and so we walked away, exhausted and some barely standing, but ready for the next part of our training. I felt Kakashi's gaze on my back, but I didn't look at him. I couldn't. My guilt was still there, and knowing that Sakura was his student made things harder for me. I might have been a coward, but at that moment I couldn't care less. I took down one of his students with cold blood. I was surprised at my own behavior. It was like two parts of me were clashing together and making me a mess of a being. I had to get help, but with the Chunin Exams nobody would listen and I couldn't bother just anyone. I had to be level-headed. I had to learn to control myself and my bloodthirsty behavior. Just where the fuck did that part of me come from?

A funny question, after all, I have lost a life. I have died and been reborn in a cruel world. I had no choice in the new world concerning my career, but I was never content with the thought of being a mindless good little kunoichi for my superiors. Yet, that was expected from me.

Once, blood caused me nausea, but then I had to kill. I watched others bleed in front of me. I had my clothes covered in my enemies' blood. It didn't bother me, after all, it was expected.

Who was I becoming? A perfect tool or a monster?

Either way, I was sure I lost Naruto as a friend. The child was infatuated with Sakura and there I was, putting her through a genjutsu, making her scream in agony then brutally attacking her. He was surely angry. Whatever. I tried to be numb to that feeling of hurt and guilt coming from that thought.

The following day I decided to go out and sort my thoughts a little bit. Kurenai-sensei told us, that she wanted to meet us later on. I planned to be a little bit alone, then talk with her and the team, later on, talk with my father about my newfound sensory skills and the killer thoughts plaguing my mind.

So, there I was, alone, on a rooftop on a random building, leaning on my back and watching the clouds float on the blue sky. Suddenly I heard movement, and I sat up, seeing Shino approaching me.

"What's up, Bug-boy?" I asked with a fake grin, surely enough I could almost sense he wasn't fooled.

"Just making sure you won't be late for our meeting." He sat down next to me, I turned to him, observing the little twitch around the corner of his eyes, one barely seeable by the fact that his eyes were covered by a sunglass, but up close I could see the movement.

"What's bugging you?" I smirked as he sighed at my pun.

I knew the boy; he was my teammate after all. During our training we learned so much about each other, every single twitch, every single gesture, it meant something. In his case, his nervousness showed in light twitches, around his covered eyes, and around his mostly hidden mouth.

"I will have to fight Hinata." He spoke lowly and I took in a deep breath.

Yeah… That… It was devastating when we exited the tower, where the preliminaries were held, Hinata began crying, just because of the simple fact that she had to fight her teammate. Shino didn't show any emotions, but it was him, who went ahead and hugged the girl, holding her close.

"Yes." I sighed. "But you don't have to, right? Both of you could just give up before the match, so…"

"No." he shook his head. "Hinata and I are both future clan heads, the truth is… We represent not only ourselves but also our clan. What we will produce is what our clan is capable of. If we give up, that will only show that our future as clan head is questionable. The clans would think that they have weaklings as their leaders, not even able to fight for themselves." He fisted his hands and it was at that moment that hit me.

Shino was only twelve years old. He was only a boy, living in a world, where he was forced to live up to a title he didn't even want. He was talking like an adult, like a clan head, just like it was expected him to talk. It angered me, knowing that he was burdened with a fate he didn't choose. It bothered me, that he had to act for his clan and not for himself. It wasn't right! He had to fight a teammate, someone he slept by on missions, someone he used to protect, he was biased, both of them were. None of them would be able to put their emotions aside, they were only children, they weren't supposed to do that! And if their emotions would get in the way and they lost deliberately, their clan would think that their future was doomed, by a leader, who was loyal to his friends rather than to his clan.

I quickly pulled him in a side hug.

He froze, but then let himself relax against me as he put his head on my right shoulder.

The Aburame and Hyuga clan wanted to be sure that their future clan heads would rather be loyal to them than to the village. What a fucked-up world. The Uchiha were wiped out for the same reason, well, in their cases the whole turn-to-the-clan-rather-to-the-village part went too far, but still… Did that mean slowly every single clan would have the same fate? Every clan would have a prodigy that would be tasked to kill them all?

"Let's just forget that for now." I leaned on my back. "Let's just watch clouds." He moved next to me as we both turned our gazes to the sky, our minds going nuts inside us, making us question our morality and others' scopes, but none of us voiced our thoughts, letting them appear and drift apart, just like clouds…

Kurenai-sensei took us to a park, where we sat down to plan our schedule for the month. She was standing in front of us, while I was seated next to Hinata, who was seated between me and Shino.

"I'm really proud of you three, you were amazing." she smiled at us, we all thanked her differently.

While Shino remained stoic, he nodded and thanked her, Hinata on the other hand smiled at her and blushed a little, while I had a bored face. It wasn't a question if any of us would pass, the only question was how many of our enemies would pass.

"I am really sorry that you two have to fight each other," she told Hinata and Shino.

"In the shinobi world, you don't choose who your opponent will be." Shino began. "But that doesn't mean I want to fight you, Hinata. I wish you good luck and please, do your best." He took her right hand and squeezed her hand.

They began talking, but I blocked it out. My mind stayed on that first sentence he said. In the shinobi world… Wasn't that how Obito started his famous line? Jiraiya once said that the shinobi world was corrupted by so much hatred. Maybe he was right. Or maybe it wasn't like that at all. Maybe they didn't choose their opponent and were forced to fight a parent, a sibling, a friend, a comrade. Maybe it was fucked up from the beginning. Or maybe everyone was just a confused child as I was. Bloodthirsty without knowing why.

"…work out the schedule for the month." I snapped back to the present and looked at our sensei. "Shino, you have to work on your taijutsu and your speed, for that I will pair you with Maito Gai, and I want you to be trained by your father as well, other than that you will have light training with me." the boy nodded. "Hinata, you have to work on your stamina and your speed, you will be paired with Maito Gai as well, but you won't have the same program as Shino, I want you to be trained in your clan jutsu as well, besides that, you will have intense training with me."

"Right," Hinata answered.

"Shikanai." Sensei began, but I held up a hand.

"I know Sasuke from both our class and from Kakashi-ni-san's stories." a half-lie, but she didn't know that. "I need to work on my speed and on my ninjutsu, my taijutsu is mostly adequate, my stamina if controlled perfect, my chakra control well supervised." she nodded. "I'll ask my father to mentor me, but other than that, Gai-sensei is a good friend of Kakashi-ni-san's so, there's a slight chance he would favor his student over me, so he won't train me that well. With that, I don't have the best taijutsu master to help me with my speed, so I'll have to work on it on my own. I don't need genjutsu against an Uchiha and I cannot ask Kakashi-ni-san to help me with my lightning release. I can either train myself on my own or do nothing." I said and she nodded.

"I asked Asuma to get me a scroll," she said and took the scroll out of her back pouch. "Here." I took it. "It contains some lightning release jutsu that might come in handy." I nodded and thanked her. "Here." she gave me another scroll. "This one contains earth release jutsu." I thanked that as well and she gave a copy of that one to Shino.

Later on, we began walking home and after we separated, I was all alone on the streets. I sighed and slouched as I walked, but then before I knew it, I found myself pushed into a darkened alley by strong hands.

I quickly reached for a kunai or my tanto, anything! But two strong hands took my hands and secured them at my back. I opened my mouth to scream, but I felt a sharp pain in my head. Before I knew it, I was falling into a welcoming darkness, my mind asking me the last question before being engulfed by the unconsciousness…

Why would an ANBU attack me?


Okay, I may have ended it in a cliffhanger. It's time to get some things moving in the story and putting in some twists *insert Cheshire grin*.

I don't own Naruto.

I have just watched the Olympic Games ceremony and saw the henohenomoheji and I was like oh my, KAKASHI XD Then when there was the part with the traditional Japanese theatre part and I saw the kabuki my mind quickly went to Kankuro XD I was seeing unintentional Naruto references (っ˘ڡ˘ς)

bunnyxstar: Thank you! I'm really glad you like it! It really makes my day!

Hope you'll enjoy it, take care!