Welcome my lovely people to chapter 5. We're going to get into some Miyako-Gaara relationship establishment in this one. It's about to get reeeeaaaal interesting from here.

Thank you to all of my new reviewers, followers, favorite(rs?)! And my returners I appreciate you 3

Thoughts are in italics

Memories/flashbacks are in bold italics

Bold if not for emphasis, is for my beginning/endnotes.

Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine, trust me I have enough original content to worry about as it is. Lol.

Everybody Loves Miyako

The first exam would take approximately an hour, which meant she didn't have much time to decide how to tackle the day. Ideally, she would somehow be involved in the exam so she could pacify Baki with some information on the various players, and ultimately pacify Gaara in his obsession with Sasuke. But, she also had to consider that attempting to insert herself the wrong way in a situation that involved a Sannin could get messy very quickly. There were several methods she could take, but she needed something that would allow her the ability to move as freely as she liked without attracting any more attention to herself.

She briefly tossed the idea around at pretending to be a genin team, either by "creating" a three-man team to participate in the exams from scratch, or impersonating a member of a current team and hypnotizing the other two. While this gave her the leeway to be able to observe the participants up close, it also demanded that she actually participate in the exam and make an effort to pass, at least long enough to be able to gather enough data. Additionally there was no telling how strong of a presence Orochimaru had in the exams, or what his aim was exactly. She knew the snake wasn't fond of his home village, so this was obviously all an elaborate scheme to bring about its destruction, but there was no reason to have anything to do with the Chuunin exams if that was his only goal. She didn't want to put herself in his path inadvertently and get caught up in something she had no business knowing about. If it didn't have anything to do with Gaara and it didn't bring any harm to him, she didn't care to know about it.

So that route was out. She could always attempt to spy on the exams from the outside, but she had no idea what security measures were being taken. And, aside from knowing that the last exam were going to be head-to-head battles, because that's how the Chuunin exams had been set up for years, she would be going in blind to a potentially touchy situation.

Well, for now she was at a roadblock, and her best bet would be to find out what the second exam was. Maybe, she mused as she roamed around the village, she could endear herself further and be of further help.

She skipped down a side street and changed course to the Hokage mansion, figuring while risky it would be a good place to start for clues on where exactly the Genin were going to be for the next exam. Halfway there she tasted lemon-squares in her mouth, Iruka, she latched onto his presence and lo and behold, he was making his way quickly to the Hokage mansion. She followed at a much slower pace, pausing every so often to appear as if she was taking in her surroundings while he hurried up the steps to the presumed Third Hokage's office. She then flickered in behind him after ensuring no one was around to see her approach. She waited a beat to see him enter a door towards the end of the hall before leisurely following. She arrived at the entrance just in time to hear the man make a request to give the final word to the Rookie Nine. A woman had just consented, when Miyako decided to take advantage of the situation.

"Well if you're taking requests, may I make one as well?"

The occupants of the room took on defensive positions, brows collectively bunched in frustration at her intrusion.

"Haha, sorry, sorry." She waved her hands defensively, but her well-meaning act wasn't enough to get anyone to lower their guard.

"Huh, even though you're young, your ability to sneak past 3 Jounin and a Chuunin tells me that you're obviously not a Suna genin." The only other woman in the room smirked in what looked like a mixture of threatening and begrudging respect. Miyako took in her purple hair, slightly scandalous outfit choice of fishnet, skirt and trench coat, and presence that wrapped around Miyako in a stranglehold, intimidating venom.

"You'd be right, I'm a Jounin." Miyako shrugged as if this status wasn't a big deal. "Sorry if I startled you, but I couldn't help overhearing this man's request and figured I should at least try and make one of my own."

The woman lowered herself back down into her seat, her relaxation causing the rest of the occupants to un-tense, slightly.

"Matarashi Anko, and you?" She motioned Miyako to stand in front of her, intrigue unmasked on her face.

"Maki, Miyako." Iruka moved off to the side, but didn't exit. Miyako supposed that he was trying to offer some extra support if needed.

"And what of this request of yours?" Anko continued.

"Ah, I'd like to congratulate Team Baki from the Sand if that's possible."

Anko gave another shit-eating grin, "oh, you sure are presumptuous aren't you? What makes you so sure they'll pass?"

The slight crease under Miyako's right eye was the only indication she was matching Anko's sass. "Oh I know they'll pass, whatever you have in store for them likely won't faze the siblings."

Anko snorted, but nonetheless seemed to give it some thought. "We usually have Chuunin to explain the meaning of what it means to be Chuunin. And, there's an additional responsibility of incapacitating the test-takers that break the rules of this next exam." She scanned Miyako from head-to-toe and made grunted. "Can you be trusted to take out your precious Sand team if they don't follow the rules?"

Miyako gave a little laugh. "The thought likely won't cross their minds, but if my word is what you need then you have it. On the slim chance that they do decide to break the rules, I promise that I can knock them out."

Anko rocked back and forth in her chair, studying Miyako and then the other occupants in the room, before sighing in resignation. "Well, I don't see a problem with it. It would be better for the team to see a familiar face, right? And even though you're not Chuunin I doubt you've been Jounin long enough for it to matter, so—"

"Ah, Matarashi-san, there's no need to attack me because I'm a fresher face." She pulled her fingers through her hair and winked teasingly. "Jealousy is unbecoming."

"You little shit." Anko chortled and rounded her desk to clap Miyako on the back, hard, which the girl was sure was done on purpose. The two women eyed each other with eyes twitching good-naturedly.

"Well then, if you're going to offer to be so helpful, I have another task for you to complete as well." Anko looked at her watch, faux gasping. "I'm afraid I can't do it myself."

"Right." Miyako drawled in disbelief, following the woman's lead to the door. "But I'm happy to be of any help I can, Matarashi-san."

"Just call me Anko, Miyako-chan, we're going to be great friends, I can already tell." With that the purple-haired woman slung her arm around Miyako's neck and squeezed. Miyako let out a breathless laugh and elbowed the woman back, all while wondering why she kept attracting slightly insane people to her.

G/M

Her next task, it turns out, was helping Anko transport perishable meals to Training Ground 44, or what she gleefully called it, "The Forest of Death". Supposedly a group of volunteer Jounin were supposed to do it, but they'd all went missing. Anko's theory was that they'd gotten too drunk the night before and wouldn't get their lazy asses out of bed. Her words, not Miyako's.

The meals as well as first aid kits were located at the Academy. Anko pointed in some vague direction and poofed away, saying something about having an entrance to make. Miyako rolled her eyes, but followed the vague gathering of several presences, figuring that would be the most logical place.

She rounded the corner of the building to a playground nearly covered in boxes, half of them sealed ordinary looking brown boxes and the other large medical kits being checked over by medical-ninja in what she assumed was a last-minute count.

Anko hadn't gone into great detail about the second exam, but she was guessing from the nearly 200 boxes of food she saw that it was going to take place over quite a few days. Considering the place was called "Forest of Death", she eyed the medical kits warily, knowing that any team unfortunate enough to run into the siblings and live were definitely going to need at least one of them to themselves.

She spotted a gathering of academy ninja rallied around a Jounin she didn't recognize, he had a raised scar that went from nearly his right ear to the bridge of his nose. She vaguely picked up three hummingbird presences that were familiar to her as she made her way a bit closer. And upon spotting the bright yellow shirt and blue scarf, it became clear to her who it was.

"Ah, miss, have you wandered too far?" The man with the scar had apparently finished his speech while she was distracted with identifying the familiar loudmouth. Miyako curved her eyes up into littles "u"s and waved.

"Hi, I'm Maki Miyako, Anko-san said you might need some help transporting these meals?" She gestured to the giant pile of boxes.

"Oh, yes. That's kind of you." He rubbed the back of his head nervously, eyeing her and the children and then the boxes once more before sighing. She understood completely, even with an additional adult hand, it would still probably take them several trips to deliver this to the site.

"Ah, this could've been avoided if those guys would've stayed out of the bars." The man grumbled. "Well, it can't be helped now." He turned fully to her and held out a hand. "Namiashi Raido, Leaf Jounin. I'm assuming you're a Sand Chuunin?"

"Jounin." She corrected, but was thankful he'd at least given her slightly more credit than being a lost genin like everyone else.

"Oh wow, impressive." His mouth popped open in awe for a few moments before he beamed and motioned to the boxes. "Well, let's get going then, Anko-san is probably already on her way there and we have a lot of ground to cover in very little time." He turned to the grouping of about 20 children and raised his voice just slightly. "Everyone! Grab as many boxes as you can and follow me!"

Miyako loaded her arms with six, noting that they weren't too heavy and were just small enough to fit inbetween her elbows and her body without being too awkward. The children took, at most, two. Raido had about ten in his hands. At this rate they'd have to make somewhere around 4 trips to transport all of the boxes, but at least they could flicker in between the two destinations once Miyako knew where she was going. Unless…

"Raido-san, don't worry about making multiple trips." Miyako called out to the man ahead. She tugged a long thread from her scarf, lengthening it until it seemed about 2 yards long. She momentarily sat down the boxes in her hands to circle the thread in the dirt around the remaining tower of boxes. She then scooped back up her boxes and followed the familiar yellow-shirted boy at the rear of the party.

Naruto's little lackey turned to her. "Are you really a Jounin? You look like Naruto-nee-chan's age." He eyed her up and down. In front of him, an orange-haired girl and a bespectacled brown haired boy turned to regard her as well.

"Konohamaru-kun, that's not very nice. Why can't she be a Jounin?" The girl protested.

The boy, whose presence now that she was up close to him felt like a bold bullhorn, huffed and turned to his friend. "I'm just saying, she looks to young!" He pouted. "How could she be a Jounin?"

Miyako laughed and winked at the group of children. "Maybe my next trick will convince you."

"Ehhhh?" The children chorused, but despite their prodding Miyako would not answer them. After about five more minutes of walking, they finally reached the grounds, where Anko was presumably wrapping up her explanation of the exam. Raido directed them to put their boxes in a pile near a space off the side of the group. He approached Miyako as she was setting her load down. "Miyako-san, you said something about not having to make another trip?" He questioned.

Before Miyako could answer, Anko's voice cut across the clearing. "Oi Maki! I sent you to be the muscle and speed this process up and this is all you can manage?"

Miyako rolled her eyes and mirrored Anko's pose, hands on her hips defiantly. "Relax, Anko-chan," she teased, tugging her hair over her shoulder, "I'll make you jealous yet." Although, Miyako sighed slightly, she would've rather not done this with the eyes of everyone else on her.

She wove some fake handsigns, knowledgeable in them enough to know which were for which element. She finished by making two loose fists stacked on top of one another.

"Ninja Art: Wormhole." At these words, a thin purple light appeared in the sky and circled once slowly before rapidly getting faster. An audible rip tore through the atmosphere and the sky disappeared to show black and then the same boxes located at the Academy dropped from the hole and solidly onto the green grass of the training grounds.

Just as quickly as it came, the light ceased, and in its place, dropped the thin thread from Miyako's scarf which she snatched from the air and pushed through the knit of her scarf.

"Ta-da." She said blandly, though her jazz-hands were a phenomenal show of effort. Anko deadpanned, and even though Miyako was sure she said it under her breath, she still swore she heard a "brat," whispered on the wind.

"Wooooow." Miyako turned from the gaped faces of the participants of the second exam, which were quite a lot of people, no wonder they had so many meals prepared, to Konohamaru who was gesticulating wildly from her to the sky and back to her.

"That was soooo cool." He gushed, hands fisted in determination in front of him. "Oi, oi, Miyako-nii-chan, could I do that jutsu too?" He held up his scarf and started tugging at it, face scrunched in concentration.

"Erm, maybe when you're older." She laughed and booped the kid on the nose. 'And if you can manage to learn magic.'

"Boss, boss!" The child cried, running towards Naruto with tears suddenly streaming down his face. "Why can't you do something cool like Miyako-nii-chan?"

The orange-clad ninja popped a vein in frustration and Miyako had to curb her laughter. She turned at Raido's pat on her back in thanks, as he rounded up the remaining children to walk them back to the Academy. She gave him a short wave and moseyed over to the rest of the large group, who she slyly surveyed with interest.

'78 people huh? We're they all just that good or have the proctors gone soft?'

Naruto and the boy had been interrupted by Anko demanding to know why Konohamaru and company were still there, considering they were in the middle of an exam. The three claimed they were writing an article for the Academy newspaper about the Chuunin exams, so Miyako figured now was a good time to check in with the siblings.

Several of the participants were looking at her with unabashed interest, and although she didn't acknowledge them in the slightest, she felt their gazes crawling along her skin. Dangerous auras blended in to one another to create a writhing mass of leeches swirling amongst each other, sizing each other up, nipping and snarling, desperate for the stench of power.

Amongst the mass was a particularly heinous presence that felt like the slow set in of frostbite. Unlike the other presences that sought power and prestige and seemed to hunt it out for their survival, this one pressed against her like a lover, but instead of whispering sweet nothings and promises, it hissed promises of endings and the darkest desires only present in the corners of hearts.

Her head was drawn in its direction despite herself, and she locked eyes with a long-haired woman who wore a Grass headband. The woman's smirk was unnatural, twisted—Miyako couldn't be sure, but she'd be willing to bet that this was Orochimaru. So he really was intending to get his hands dirty during this exam, but to what end?

She served his twisted smirk a glare of her own and reached the siblings just as Anko announced that they were going to take a ten minute break so the Academy students could write their article.

She found the three in a shadier spot near the fence, seemingly unbothered by the vicious sounds of nature within. Kankuro immediately greeted her, "some jutsu you have there, show-off." He snickered. Miyako pulled her mane over her shoulder with a shrug. "It's not the best I can do if that's what you're thinking."

"Is there a reason you've become buddy-buddy with Anko Matarashi?" Temari wrinkled her nose in revulsion and Miyako let out a peal of laughter.

"You'll see." She promised, but continued, with a mocking edge to her voice. "Although, Temari, she really isn't that bad, once you get past the obvious…sadistic tendencies."

Temari snorted and rolled her eyes, grumbling under her breath about Miyako's poor choice in friends.

"How was the first exam?" Miyako asked conversationally, leaning opposite Gaara who was doing his very best to ignore their collective existence.

"Boring," Kankuro immediately whined, "it was a dumb written exam, all we had to do was cheat—and then that didn't even matter!" The boy huffed, pulling on his puppet's bandages irately. "I went to all that trouble of disguising Crow for nothing!"

Miyako only made a hum in sympathy and turned to Temari when Kankuro went off on a tangent about Leaf Shinobi and mind games.

"Apparently the tenth question was the determinant of passing the exam. We didn't know what the question would be beforehand and it wasn't really a question at all, but the proctor made the stakes seem high—if you took the last question and didn't make a score high enough with your teammates, you'd be barred from taking the Chuunin exams again. Or, you could opt out of the question and try again next year. Everyone that chose to stay to "take" the last question passed automatically."

Miyako made a noise of understanding. "So he was trying to see if you would take the risk of going in blind without any guarantee of pass or failure, much like a Chuunin might be faced with concerning unknown mission parameters."

Temari sighed, "of course you would automatically understand if even after knowing little of the situation."

Kankuro snorted. "It still seems like a stupid way of going about it to me." He nodded self-assuredly from his spot on the ground. "Oi, Miyako, you took the Chuunin exams not too long ago, did they make you do something so convoluted?"

Miyako gave a hum in thought, putting one hand to her chin as if trying to remember the exact details from so long ago. "Well, I took the Chuunin exams when I was ten, and back then it was hosted in Kumo."

Temari and Kankuro turned to her with rapt attention now, and even Gaara had titled his face slightly to her direction, though he still acted unbothered.

"The first exam and second exam were linked," she explained, "but I guess in retrospect, there were similar objectives between your first exam and my own."

"What did you have to do?" Kankuro questioned, hands on knees, wiggling forward like a child during story time.

"Well, first, you have to know that the year I took mines, there weren't as many participants, so Kumo was able to arrange separate test-taking spots for each team around the Land." She put a finger to her chin again. "The object of the first part of the exam was to infiltrate an enemy "camp" to find a possible informant within 3 days. Our proctor followed us presumably and took notes on our strategy for infiltrating the base and identifying the informant. I was sent to the inside as an undercover agent, while my other two teammates remained on the outside to scout an area for escape and set traps for a possible enemy pursuit, and the other to survey our mark from the outside to determine validity. The morning of the third day we managed to pick who we thought was the right person and move on to the second exam, which was delivered to us in a scroll as soon as we confirmed our choice with the hidden proctor."

"And what was the second exam?" Temari questioned when Miyako paused.

"Escort the supposed informant to a disclosed location," at the siblings unimpressed looks, Miyako added, "without dying of course."

"But wouldn't that make for a high pass rate?" She questioned, unconvinced.

"Not necessarily, some of the participating teams could've chosen wrong, and they would've failed the exam if they reached the location and their chosen informant "killed" the meeting arranger. Some people could've chosen right, but might not have been able to outmaneuver their enemy and make it to the meeting point. Some people might not have made it past the first stage and failed to retrieve an informant at all." Miyako shrugged. "Regardless, we managed to choose correctly and avoided any life-threatening injuries. One of my teammates did have to avoid the final matches due to a major injury, but as I heard, he eventually made Chuunin the year after, so all's well that ends well."

Temari and Kankuro looked pensively up at the forest. "That certainly sounds a lot harder than what we're about to do."

Miyako directed her gaze to the same forest. "I don't know that I would agree with that." She tugged on a curl of her hair. "I may have only known Anko for an hour at this point, but even I can understand to be wary of something she takes perverse joy in." 'And any place that has Orochimaru lurking around in it makes it ten times deadlier' "What do you have to do anyway?"

Temari hummed, "We're apparently going to be given either a heaven or an earth scroll and we have to retrieve either a heaven or an earth scroll from another team and transport it to the tower in the middle of the forest."

Miyako nodded, "She's trying to cut the number of teams in half, but that's still at best 39 people. No way Konoha lets that many people go to the final round."

The siblings all pitched an eyebrow. "What do you mean? What will they do if that many people do pass?"

Miyako opened her mouth to elaborate, but was sidetracked with keeping Anko's big mouth away from her ear.

"Get walking Maki! We're about to start." Anko shouted, gleefully trying to glue herself to Miyako who was fruitlessly trying to shove her away.

"I can't leave if you don't LET ME GO!" Miyako growled, doing her best to simultaneously keep Anko away from her and keep Anko's mouth closed. She wouldn't put it past the odd woman to suddenly open her mouth and lick her hand or something equally juvenile.

Anko maneuvered her head so Miyako's hand was only pressed against half of her face. "Let me give you a thank you kiss first." And then she puckered her lips obnoxiously.

Miyako used her free hand to smack her open palm against those puckered lips just hard enough for Anko to whine and release her. "You're so meeeean to me Miyako-chaaaaan." She cried nursing her face.

Miyako bid the siblings, who had watched the whole scene with various looks of exasperation, a cheerful goodbye and Anko a halfhearted wave before taking off. Since she wouldn't be seen around the village for the next five days she might as well pay her favorite senseis one last visit.

G/M

"How do you keep getting in here?"

Her Jounin friends were back in a bar, as per the usual. Miyako ignored Kakashi's sour greeting and gave the rest of the Leaf Jounin gang a little wave before squishing herself into the limited space available at the booth table, right into Kakashi's side, much to his chagrin.

"Miyako-chan!" Gai, who had looked previously too serious, gave her a bright beam.

"What's going on?" Miyako guided the straw that came with her juice under her scarf and sipped happily.

"What even is that?" Kakashi grumbled suspiciously, sipping his own beverage of choice through his mask.

"Pineapple juice." She answered innocently, but before Kakashi could further cross-examine her— jeez what's crawled up your ass and died—Gai interrupted their potential spat.

"Ah, I Was Just Reprimanding My Rival!" Kakashi audibly groaned at Miyako's obvious interest as she sat up and encouraged Gai with a sweeping motion universally thought of as "go on".

"Now Gai, do you really think that's fair when Lee was the one who challenged Sasuke?" Asuma commented on the other side of the booth and Miyako couldn't lean more forward even if she tried, the table biting into her abdomen at this point.

'I guess I left too early, this had to have happened some time before the first test, or Kankuro would've said something.'

"Oh? That's not a very good use of Lee's youthful strength, is it Gai-sensei?" Miyako commented offhandedly, secretly chuckling at the man's dejected expression.

Kakashi waved dismissively. "They were both at fault, and as long as no one was seriously hurt, we can just drop it."

Miyako pouted at Kakashi's attempt to change the subject, bastard, she wanted to hear more about how those two went toe-to-toe.

"Lee Was Sufficiently Reprimanded." Gai huffed and pointed at Kakashi with nostrils flared. "But To Let Sasuke Off Without Even So Much Of A Warning—"

"Gai." Kakashi narrowed his one eye, and Miyako vaguely felt as if she was watching a rapid tennis match, eyes ping-ponging between the rivals with undisguised interest.

"We both know Sasuke wouldn't have won even without Lee having to use any advanced Taijutsu, so. Drop. It."

Gai childishly turned his head, and Kakashi rolled his eye and got up with his glass. When the others didn't seem worried about where the man was going, Miyako assumed he was simply going to get a refill.

'But oh how the tables have turned. If Kakashi believes that Lee could've beat Sasuke, without "advanced taijutsu" does this mean that the real threat isn't Sasuke after all?' The turn of events wasn't…upsetting to Miyako, obviously. She had suspected that Gaara had been giving Sasuke too much credit anyway, and now that even his sensei was backing up the claim, all of the credit was duly misplaced.

So obviously Lee would have to be more carefully monitored, but…Miyako directed her gaze back to Gai, who seemed to be staring off into space. If Lee was anything like Gai, he was determined, but honorable. Sasuke, at the very least, seemed ruthless, which is probably why Gaara was fixated on him. But, Gaara also didn't really know what he needed did he? And another ruthless individual wasn't going to do much for him in the way of improvement.

Miyako would've dwelled on this longer, but something outside caught her eye outside, a flash of black that she was sure no one else noticed or even cared enough to pay attention to. But Miyako was a nosy bitch, so she decided to investigate.

"Well," she sipped the rest of her juice quickly, laughing nervously. "This is awkward, so I'm just gonna let you handle that." And before anyone could question her further she pranced away.

A familiar venomous presence was getting further away, and it was flanked by white noise which could only mean one thing—two people who knew how to hide their chakra signatures. Anko was going somewhere, and fast, with two people who didn't want to be seen, which she could only assume meant she didn't want to be seen. And Miyako couldn't pass up an opportunity to see what wasn't supposed to be seen.

Miyako was an extra cautious person by nature, so she took as many backstreets and side alleys as possible while tracking the three towards what appeared to be an open field. Miyako couldn't see from the man feet she was behind the bodies, so she took to a tree bordering the open landscape to clock whatever could be important enough to pull Anko away from her own exam.

Anko and two Konoha ANBU surrounded three corpses, obviously dead long enough to be of interest to birds, but not long enough to attract the bugs that would soon nest in their decaying bodies. This was obviously cause for concern normally, but upon squinting Miyako noticed that one of the corpses…had no face, and the corpse's clothes looked eerily similar to the Grass ninja woman who had made eye contact with her earlier.

'Note to self, Orochimaru is one sick bastard.'

Miyako didn't want to dwell on the why of the Sanin being so obviously sloppy. If the man had successfully infiltrated the village with none the wiser, than why would he tip anyone off about him being there?

'He does seem like the type of sadistic fuck who likes playing with his prey.'

Whatever he was here for, as long as it wasn't Gaara she would have no part in it. The last thing she needed was a Sanin making life difficult for her.

Miyako felt a strange tingle go through her body, as if it was being pulled backwards. She momentarily panicked at the thought that someone had found her lamp, but this didn't feel as strong and, she mused, there wasn't really any warning before she was pulled back into the lamp.

'Oh wait, the exam summoning.' Well that was fast, she sighed and gave into the pull, letting it whisk her away from the sickening sight of a faceless body never to be properly mourned.

G/M

She popped up in a concrete room facing two bewildered siblings and a bored Gaara.

"Wow that was quick, I barely had time to run any errands." She mumbles and spins to survey the room.

"Erm, Miyako, why are you here?" Kankuro looks back down to the scrolls crossed to summon her.

"Oh yeah, you passed!" She cheers and gives her best jazz hands. The siblings are not impressed.

"Is that all you have to say?" Temari groaned, hands on hips.

"Well, I think Anko said something about explaining this inscription on the wall. It's a metaphor using the Heaven and Earth symbols to explain the importance of being a Chuunin, but, to be frank with you, I forgot what she said." Miyako gave a nervous titter at the sighs of defeat.

"Miyako, you had one job." Kankuro mumbled, massaging his temples. Said girl shrugs. "What can I say, I've been busy in the last…how long did it take you to finish?"

"It's been less than 2 hours Miyako." Temari shook her head in disbelief.

"Wow, that has to be a record." The purple-eyed girl commented offhandedly.

"Anyway, what could you have accomplished in the last 2 hours?" Kankuro scoffs.

Miyako mock-gasped, hand dramatically slapping her own chest in offensive. "I'll have you know that I stalked your proctor and two ANBU black ops without being discovered."

All three of their interests were captured. "Anko? What about her?"

Miyako sat flopped onto the ground and hummed. "That weird grass ninja with the long tongue?"

"Yeah the one that retrieved Anko's kunai for her using said long tongue, what about her?"

Miyako blinked, but plowed on, she couldn't dwell on how Orochimaru had been that close to Anko and she hadn't sensed anything off about her.

"That woman you saw is an impersonation, the real woman is dead. Her body is in a field with no face right now being picked at by birds."

The siblings balked, even Gaara's eyes widened a minute fraction. "But why would anyone do that?" Kankuro looked to Temari and then back to Miyako, gaze saying it all. 'You want to know if it has anything to do with you. This is what happens when you get in bed with a snake.'

"I don't know, yet. But I do know that whoever it is must be dangerous enough to require ANBU interference, which must also mean that it's someone Konoha knows."

Temari interjected. "That's just speculation, unless you heard them confirm—"

"Oh I will confirm, why do you think I convinced Anko to let me tell you congratulations?" She smirked as her plot dawned on the three.

"No way, you'll get us caught." Temari hissed, eyes darting around as if searching for cameras.

"If I can stalk a Special Jounin and two ANBU black ops without getting caught, I think I can manage this forest by myself." She cracked her neck. "Besides I've been in worse situations anyway."

"But is it really smart to get involved with someone who stole someone's face?" Temari threw her hands in the air. "We don't even know if they have anything to do with us."

Miyako shrugged absentmindedly, much more concerned with trying to track Anko's energy. She was definitely in the forest now, and traveling at a fast speed.

"Maybe, maybe not." Miyako murmured. "I'm not eager to come into a contact with a person like that, but whoever they are they're here for a reason, it wouldn't hurt to find out if that reason is going to affect us one way or another." And that was honest, Miyako wasn't about to put herself in the path of Orochimaru if she could help it, but she would poke around and make sure that whatever he was doing wasn't going to hurt Gaara.

"I still don't think you should risk it, if what you say is true, then ANBU may be crawling all over this forest soon enough, and how are you going to explain yourself if they catch you hanging around?" Kankuro concurred. Miyako sighed, just about ready to flicker away to find the Rookie Nine, when Gaara spoke up for the first time.

"No, she will do it."

The siblings gaped for a moment before Kankuro cleared his throat. "Gaara—"

"Miyako is clearly more adept at concealing her presence and gathering intelligence than you give her credit for." He then bore his seafoam green eyes straight at her. "I don't care about this ninja that stole a face to enter into the exams, however, you will use this opportunity to bring me intelligence on Sasuke Uchiha."

Miyako sighed, as if she knew the request wasn't coming, and decided she wanted to be difficult. "Don't you think you're giving this Uchiha boy more credit than he deserves?"

Gaara's only answer was a narrowing of his eyes. Miyako waved dismissively, but conceded. "Fine, fine, I'll make sure your new favorite plaything is still in one piece." She ignored Gaara's glower and felt for Anko's presence once again, she seemed to be miles from the tower, which was as a good as any "go" signal was going to get.

"Now then, if you'll excuse me." She gave a short wave before flickering off.

G/M

'Slink, slink, slink. I am one with the foliage.' It was not necessary for Miyako to think these things to maintain camouflage, but she was bored and it was the only thing keeping her sane. She'd kept a wide berth from Orochimaru and Anko because she definitely didn't want to know what was going on over there. The only interesting thing she'd witnessed thus far was 3 kids with a music note on their headbands mercilessly takedown a Rain team, only to scoff when they looted the bodies. They must not have had the scroll they were looking for then, they still took it anyway though, interestingly enough.

'So he decided to get his hands dirty himself by impersonating someone and sent in a team of kids? But why?' Interest piqued, Miyako crawled down a little further to hear their conversation, as they'd paused in their looting to speak quietly amongst themselves.

"Zaku, you're well aware of our mission, passing these exams are fruitless if Orochimaru-sama's requests aren't carried out as he sees fit." The boy with a hunched back lectured, glaring at the other boy across from him.

"I know that Dosu, but aren't you curious as to why Orochimaru-sama wants us to kill Sasuke? What's so great about this Uchiha kid anyway?"

'My thoughts exactly. Why would Orochimaru want a couple of genin to kill Sasuke? Does he have some sort of personal vendetta against the Uchiha? I mean, I would understand, but it still doesn't make sense. He's here impersonating a Grass ninja, if he really wanted to he could just kill Sasuke himself and get it over with, why make these kids do it for him?'

"That's not for us to question, idiot." The girl spat. "We find the Uchiha and kill him, that's it."

'Killing Sasuke can't be the end goal here, it's all too much trouble. There has to be another reason he's taking all of these risks.' Miyako crawled back up the tree, knowing the only way she'd figure out what was going on, aside from trying to stalk Orochimaru, no thank you, would be to find Sasuke first.

Where Sasuke was, Naruto was bound to be, and with that massive presence finding him should be as easy as finding a leaf in the Leaf village. Except she couldn't feel it…like at all.

In fact, when she thought on it, she should've felt it smack her in the face at some point. His presence covered a wide radius, several blocks of the village in fact, so why wasn't she finding it anywhere.

Maybe, she thought, they were still on the outskirts of the forest. That seemed to be where the Sound team decided to head, so she'd follow them and see what happened. Then she would be killing two birds with one stone, she'd find out what Orochimaru wanted with Sasuke and she'd gather information on Sasuke. Now…if they decided to kill Sasuke, it would be a shame, but casualties were expected in this kind of environment so Gaara would just have to deal.

Now she was lying in wait, because the Sound ninja were lying in wait. Despite the fact that it was nightfall and Sakura seemed to be the only one of her team functioning, the Sound team decided it was best to strike in the morning. Miyako knew tactically it made sense, they didn't know what Sakura was capable of and it was dark, but Miyako's senses were flooded by the tears part of Sakura's aura. Whatever had happened to Naruto and Sasuke had made her an emotional wreck and combatively useless.

Miyako couldn't deny the fact that it sucked though, having both of your teammates incapacitated was a heavy burden, and whatever happened to Naruto must've been major, because Miyako was practically on top of the three of them and all she could feel from Naruto was the flowery part of his aura, nothing wild and enticing about it. It's like the Kyuubi's chakra had been tampered with somehow. Now Miyako didn't claim to be an expert on demons, but she'd hung around Gaara enough to know that exhaustion didn't just cause the spirit to go dormant. In fact, Shukaku seemed to delight in Gaara's exhaustion, but he was an opportunist, who knew if the rest of the demons were like that.

'But how then? Without knowing what happened there's too many factors.'

When she turned her attention to Sasuke's presence he seemed to be going through a considerable amount of pain based on his facial expressions, and the little flame was quivering in response to the black tendrils snaking to stroke it. The darkness also felt a lot colder than it did previously. Cold like…

'Could it be that they…ran into Orochimaru?' Or Orochimaru had hunted them, but again, why were these children under the impression that they needed to kill Sasuke if Orochimaru had already encountered the team and put them in such a state? To make it easier? But what would that accomplish? And it still didn't answer the question of why Sasuke to begin with?

Somehow amidst all of her rapidly swirling thoughts Miyako exhausted herself and fell asleep at some point in the night, because when she woke up again, it was to the shouts of "Konoha Senpuu!"

Miyako nearly jolted herself out of the tree she was camouflaged in. She rubbed the drool from her skin and scolded herself that having a bloodthirsty master who didn't know of her existence made her a bad ninja.

Lee had shown up and Miyako was suddenly wide awake, taking in her surroundings. Evidently the Sound ninja had made their move and appeared to take on Sakura to, logically, get to Sasuke. The girl should change her name to lucky, because Lee showing up at least gave them a fighting chance.

Miyako sat back on the tree and crossed her arms. 'Let's see what your protégé can do, Kakashi, Gai."

G/M

"She's been gone all night."

The siblings were sitting down to…breakfast if that's what you wanted to call the canned goods they'd been given to sustain themselves while they waited for the other teams to fight their way through the forest. Kankuro, in comparison to the one time he'd eaten breakfast made by Miyako, was pouting into his meal.

"Maybe she found something good, like a better meal." Kankuro whined. Temari knocked him across the head. "Be serious, what if she was caught?"

Gaara rolled his eyes, a rarity, which meant he was in a fleeting good mood. "It's more likely something caught her interest." Temari and Kankuro left it alone, if only to preserve the mood.

It turns out they didn't have to wonder too long, midway into trying to pass time, Miyako popped up looking mighty conflicted.

"You're alive!" Kankuro cheered, which seemed to snap Miyako back into a somewhat cheerful mood.

"Have more faith in me." She chuckled. Temari wasn't patient enough to even greet her and cut right to the heart of the matter.

"Well? What did you find out?" Temari didn't appreciate Miyako's snort of derision, what a brat, if her twitching eyebrow was anything to go by.

"For someone who didn't want me to go, you sure are eager." Miyako drawled, taking a seat at the low table and rifling through the spare leftovers the siblings had.

"Enough." Gaara's command sucked all of the sound from the room momentarily, though Miyako seemed mostly immune, to the siblings' astonishment.

"Tell us what happened Miyako." Gaara continued, his entire attention turned to her. Miyako secretly delighted in it, though she wished it were for entirely different reasons than wanting to know about his precious Uchiha. She bit back a growl and plowed on.

"Hmmm, it turns out those three Sound ninja, Dosu, Zaku and…the girl, were contracted to kill Sasuke."

Kankuro and Temari both simultaneously interjected, Miyako could barely discern their questions, it sounded something like" Contracted, but why who would want do something unless—?"

Gaara's glares were at least effective enough to quiet the two down. He motioned Miyako to go on impatiently.

"I don't know who contracted them—" because telling them that Orochimaru was behind the request would only throw them for a loop, and who knows what would happen if they told Baki, "but I do know it has nothing to do with the plan to infiltrate Sand. They were acting on separate orders." Miyako couldn't have Gaara believing that the Sound ninja were in the way of his own desires, the less bloodshed he committed the better.

"They didn't succeed, which is what matters," to Gaara anyway, Miyako held back an eye roll, "but that isn't really the best part of the story."

Miyako rolled her tense shoulders, recalling the scene she'd just vacated, the vision of Sasuke being energized by that swirling purple mass tattooed on her eyelids.

"It seems that in between the time it took for you to finish your exam and the time it took for me to enter into the forest myself, Sasuke's team was attacked. When I found them, both Sasuke and Naruto were unconscious. The Sound team sought to strike during this time, and they might've been successful if Sasuke hadn't had time to recuperate while other teams were interfering."

"Teams, plural?" Temari repeated, and Gaara got a dark look across his face.

"The green-clad boy from Gai's team, Lee. The blonde, the bigger fellow and the pineapple headed looking boy, Ino, Choji and Shikamaru. That last team was classmates with Sasuke's team, they're called the Rookie 9 because they have the least experience in the exams."

"So they stopped the Sound team?" Kankuro guessed.

"No, Sasuke stopped the Sound team." Miyako massaged her neck, wondering if she should even entertain Gaara's no doubt sleepless fantasies about the type of challenge Sasuke could pose. But she did say she would pacify him, at least a little.

"The other 5 definitely helped, but Sasuke woke up when the full team that came to assist failed in their attempt to defeat the Sound team. And he was…definitely different. There were…" Miyako unconsciously wrapped her arms around her shoulders and slid them up to her neck. "There were these glowing marks on his body, and his whole aura was…violent. The energy was visible, purple, malicious." She shook her head, pulling herself from diving deeper down that rabbit hole.

"He broke Zaku's arms, like they were twigs after batting him around like some sort of kickball while everyone else just stood there frozen. He was so fast that it ended in less than two minutes." Miyako shuddered, she was certain that whatever happened to Sasuke was Orochimaru's doing. The way Dosu had paused in recognition at those marks on his body, and then retreated without making a move against Sasuke and even giving up his scroll, it was obvious that he hadn't anticipated any of that at all. It only confirmed that Orochimaru was moving separately of the plans being made around him. Like Gaara he had his own agenda, and it seemed Sasuke was a collateral prize he was willing to gamble for.

'That man either has some nerve or he's a master tactician.' It puzzled Miyako that she couldn't pin down what exactly his plans were, outside of destroying the Leaf village, but in a way she was glad, she was sure she never wanted to have an experience that would allow her to understand how that mind worked.

"Did he kill them?" Gaara suddenly cut through the silence. Miyako turned her face to look at him, but he was concentrated unseeingly on a wall in front of him.

"No, Sakura managed to stop him. And then the Sound team retreated after that." The three let that information sink in and Gaara only gave a short "hn" and a smirk before rising and walking out of the room, still in his own world.

Temari and Kankuro were white noise in the background, Miyako was sure they were talking about whether or not they should inform Baki of this new development or if it wasn't important enough to hinder their plans, but all Miyako could focus on was the door Gaara had exited from.

Miyako was certain at first, so sure, that she didn't understand Gaara like she used to. She was comforted in the fact that he'd called her— inadvertently be damned, in his time of need, so that she could somehow guide him back to what she knew he could be. It was important that she knew what Gaara could become, that she knew that he could be better, it was important that she didn't understand this side of him so it could be destroyed.

But she'd forgotten how easy it was for him to suck her in without even trying. It had only been 3 days, and despite all she did to distract herself, the distance she'd put between them, her brain was already starting to translate Gaara's expressions, what he didn't say, the ticks in his movement, with what it really meant.

That "hn" and little smirk had meant Gaara was impressed, but not threatened by Sasuke. It meant that Sasuke could still give him purpose, and had even raised the stakes a little with the acquisition of this new power, but in not killing his enemy, he would never rise to the level Gaara was at. To Gaara, Sasuke was a worthy challenge, a prey who had just learned a new way to adapt. And this had made the chase more exciting, had the apex predator within Gaara salivating at the chance to hunt.

Miyako moved out of the room silently, not that anyone noticed, rubbing her hands roughly on her face.

'I can't get caught up in this again,' she gulped, 'I have to do something to make sure I can keep myself separate from Gaara. That my wants aren't subdued by how overwhelming our connection is.'

Miyako sighed, sliding down the wall of the stairwell, staring unseeing up into the pitched ceiling and began to laugh quietly, brokenly to herself.

'Yeah, easier said than done.'

Unedited. I'm so tired, but my fingers demanded I finish. Let me know what you think beautiful people. Everyone stay safe out there! And yes, I did mess with the timeline of the second Chuunin exams a bit, but it's probably not that noticeable…right?

K love you bye bye!

.Acronym