Welcome beautiful readers to chapter 7. It's time at last for the final exam of the Chuunin exams to begin! Are you excited? I am, a whole bunch of shit takes place that it had to be separated into two chapters. Buckle up!

Possible Trigger Warning: Please note that the first bold italics section speaks of slight alcohol abuse, mental breakdown, and suicidal thoughts. If this is triggering for you please skip it.

As per the usual, thank you to everyone who continues to read this story. I also would like to thank all of the followers, reviewers, favoriters and the like 3

Thoughts are in italics

Memories/flashbacks are in bold italics

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

Disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me, but that doesn't mean I can't mess with the plot however I see fit :D

Gotcha!

'So they made it.' Miyako watched from the shadow near the entrance hallway as the genin who'd passed the second exam were lined up in front of the proctors, senseis and the Hokage.

Why didn't she already know? Well, she'd been serious when she said she wasn't going to continue to spy on Kakashi's team, though the price she paid was far more than missing some juicy action.

'Speaking of prices,' Miyako tucked her face into the wall momentarily and ran a finger over the slight throbbing in her forehead, her previous immature actions the night before slushing around in her brain like the alcohol slushed around in her body.

Miyako wasn't the type of person who got drunk in her nearly two centuries of living, but apparently the mixture of she and Gaara's emotions slamming violently through her body thought differently. After abandoning her confused master to come up with his own ludicrous theories, she teleported herself from the tower and into a field not too far from the village proper. At first she convinced herself that she was only going to go to the bar to visit with her Jounin friends, because they were obviously going to be there the last night of the Chuunin exams to make bets on who had passed and who had failed. She could take joy in their endless squabbling and distract herself from how empty inside she felt despite knowing there was no other realistic way to get through to Gaara but for him to think of her as a threat.

Just the idea of being a threat to Gaara made bile rise up in her throat; she stopped to her sluggish zombie walk to hunch into the grass, hugging her knees and forcing herself to breathe in through her nose and out through her mouth.

'How must he see me now? As an assassin, obviously, I all but said it didn't I? But I've created a real sense of danger for him now. With Sasuke, Gaara is interested because he's strong prey, but I've just proven to him that the predator can just as easily be hunted. Can I really count on this theory to create a twisted sense of respect like I think it will? Will he fear me now?'

Being around people was a mistake, but she wanted so desperately to forget that she couldn't scrap the getting drunk idea completely from her head. Before she knew it, a black veil covered her eyes, and when she blinked again it was gone. Her magic, she didn't have to look in the mirror to know, she didn't look like herself, literally. She hardly remembered walking to the bar, it was a livelier place, not as filled with ninja to look at her sideways because something felt…off. These were regular tradesman, business owners, merchants—anyone who didn't have or want to use the gift inside their bodies as a weapon. There was one empty spot open at the bar, and in the warped glass of the bar countertop she saw her reflection, a ghostly pale frowning face with green eyes and straight brown hair in a bob.

"What can I get you sweetheart?" She doesn't remember what she ordered, maybe it was hot sake, because it burned all her thought away, maybe it was ale to counteract her bitterness, only that she ordered another, and another, and another. She drowned herself in so much hard liquor she hardly even remembered who Gaara was or why she was upset with her situation. The voice that kept scream-weeping in her head about how Gaara was going to hate her because she turned out to be like everyone else in his childhood was silenced. The rage monster scrambling the waves in her brain and furiously stomping around proclaiming that this all could've been avoided had they just killed Yashamaru when they had the chance, and that she'd failed Gaara and deserved to die, shut up.

Miyako forced herself to tune back in to the proceedings, but it was painful listening to the Hokage drone about Shinobi relations, she already had a headache, no need to make it worse, so she scanned the crowd again for a distraction.

'And interestingly enough, though they were belittled, all of the Rookie Nine managed to make it thus far.' In fact all of her favorite Jounin sensei's teams were present, good for them.

'1,2…7 teams to make 21.' It wasn't nearly as bad as 13, but still, from Anko's slightly annoyed look she was hoping for far less survivors to come out of her torture forest.

'Although, I'm sure we would've gotten a lot less if Orochimaru hadn't thrown these kids into the mix.' She eyed the backs of the Sound ninja's heads with a mixture of disdain and confusion. Miyako hated when the dots didn't all add up. But wasn't it a slight comfort that she couldn't understand all of Orochimaru's moves?

'And then on top of this, what is possible Kabuto doing here?' If Orochimaru was planning to attack during the Chuunin exams as they were all lead to believe, why would he involve Kabuto and 5 other lackeys? Why didn't he just kill the Grass ninja, use her body, and get the job done that way without getting further involved? Kabuto she understood to a degree, if you wanted to get information on key players you had to blend in, but even his role didn't entirely make a lot of sense. Why would he waste time taking the exams unless his primary objective wasn't to prepare Suna to infiltrate Konoha.

Another headache groaned through across her forehead as her eyebrow ticked. She'd made that same point to Baki this morning, though her appearance probably hadn't helped her argument.

She woke up at the break of dawn, her clothes slightly askew and her glamor worn off, but thankfully she was cautious even drunk, and had crawled into a tree to sleep off her horrible choices. After unsticking her tongue from the roof of her mouth and blinking as much crust from her eye as she could, she somehow managed to climb down the tree and stumble back to their temporary home.

Baki was evidently on his way out, and it took Miyako several seconds longer than it should've to realize what day it was.

"Where have you been?" His judgement oozed from his voice, though Miyako was nursing a hangover too large to care.

"Spying, it's literally in my title." She deadpanned, kicking her shoes off haphazardly and aiming her body straight for the bathroom.

"For 5 days? Do you think I can't spot an obvious coincidence?" Miyako, knowing Baki would drag this conversation on for far longer than needed and eventually smell the liquor on her breath on top of her being dead tired, sought to speed the interrogation up.

"I was probably wherever you think I was, can we be done?" Miyako was tempted to start undressing in front of him if it meant he'd get embarrassed enough to leave her alone.

He narrowed his eyes. "Not if where I think you were was the Forest of Death. And if you were I'd have to question your motives, again."

Miyako let out a quiet incredulous laugh as she harshly wiped a hand down her face. "Let's be real Baki, you've been questioning my motives the entire time. Which I find rich, hilarious even, considering how much risk your precious Sound allies have been putting us in." She crossed her arms and cocked her hip. "Tell me, if you already had two teams already stationed to collect and gather information, which is far too many anyway, would you kill one of the participating teams outside of your control to enter into the forest yourself?"

Baki let himself look flabbergasted for a moment. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying your precious Orochimaru doesn't care about what comes out of this for Suna. I'm saying the he not only murdered a Grass ninja and took her face, but that he did that in order to target Sasuke and has been using your favorite spy to watch Sasuke for the last five days. Oh-!" At this point Miyako was too fed up at the events, throwing her hands up in the air in a severely out of character move. "And this was after he apparently ordered his three little minions to kill Sasuke on a side quest."

His face grew furious. "The only way you could know this is if you'd been watching Sasuke for the last 5 days. Indulging Gaara in his whims, obviously."

Miyako laughed in pity, some for him but most for herself, because despite the fact that Suna was so desperate for some sort of position of power they would ignore obvious warning signs, Baki had hit the nail on the head with that assumption.

"You don't believe me, fine." She scoffed and rolled her eyes, done with this conversation. "I would say ask your favorite little spy next time you see him, but I wouldn't want you to have them thinking you doubt them and becoming their next skin puppet." She slammed the door to the bathroom in Baki's face and massaged her temples. She refused to start the shower until she heard the door close and no longer felt his presence.

She came back to the present just in time to hear the proctor ask if anyone would like to forfeit the upcoming round. She swung her head back to observe the gathered genin. Obviously it would be in Orochimaru's best interests if his heavy hitters forfeited now so they wouldn't give away any of their jutsu to the enemy when they did attack. Who knew when that would be though, Miyako was obviously being kept from something and she didn't like it.

She saw Kakashi's team squabble for a bit and then as she suspected, Kabuto forfeited, upsetting Naruto and his teammates for reasons she'd, obviously, missed in the 24 hours she'd decided to take off. They were too far away and Miyako's head was throbbing too much to try and enhance her hearing, so she let that opportunity to gather information pass. But it was obvious, eavesdropping or not, that Kabuto had somehow meddled in Team Kakashi's affairs and endeared himself to them—maybe had even done what Miyako refused to do and handed them a scroll on silver platter.

She scoffed once more as he made to exit, whispering something to his teammates. Miyako couldn't deal with him as she was now irritated and hungover, actually she wasn't going to be able to pay attention to any part of the match if she didn't get some type of nourishment in her body. Spaz-tastically, she'd taken too long in the shower and had to rush to get here on time. She supposed she had just a few minutes and just enough concentration to magic up something to eat before watching ten matches.

G/M

Miyako was sipping on hot tea in an area not too far from the battle area that she guessed was like a kitchenette, but was really just a sink, some cabinets with mugs and a tea set, and a heating apparatus all cramped on one counter. A counter she was sitting on while she tried to magic away her headache.

Kabuto, or who she assumed all this time was Kabuto, showed up as she was chewing the last of her dango. Silver hair, round glasses, he wasn't packed with muscle, leaning more toward lean, which she would bet meant he was fonder of ninjutsu, something most likely deadly if he was a spy worth his salt. She barely gave him the time of day.

"We finally meet and this is the reception I receive, Maki Miyako?" She observed him over the rim of her cup and nonchalantly crossed her legs and leaned back against the cabinets behind her.

"Kabuto. I see you spoke to Baki." She sniffed and continued to drink her green tea without a care in the world.

He already looked far too amused for this to be a normal conversation.

"Not necessarily."

"No, I know you spoke to Baki." She sucked down the last dredges of her tea. "No one you have direct contact with knows my last name, and in the conversation you overheard between the siblings and I, my last name was never said." She countered his laughter-filled eyes with unamused ones of her own. "That was a nice attempt though."

"Now, now, I think you should be nicer to me. After all, I could expose you." Across from the countertop in the small kitchenette area was an island that Kabuto saw fit to lean over to address her. Miyako fought to keep her eye from twitching, and preparing herself to deal with the second interrogation today. Although unlike Baki, it was likely that Kabuto was far more of a threat to her.

"Interesting," Miyako clanked down her cup and observed Kabuto with a pensive look, "if you knew half as much as you claim, than you'd know how bad of an idea that is."

"Oh?" She really had no intention of indulging Kabuto, so she cut right to the chase.

"Is there something you needed? Preferably something that isn't a waste of my time?" She met his amused grin with a no-nonsense stare and he chuckled, honestly the nerve of this brat.

"I just think it's funny, the timing of it all, but I still can't figure out what your angle is and you have to know Miyako, this is frustrating for me."

Miyako snorted. "Why don't I play the world's smallest violin for you? Whatever you and Orochimaru are planning is likely convoluted nonsense, and you don't see me cornering you for answers."

Kabuto let out a more boisterous laugh at her barb, and Miyako was halfway off of the countertop and ready to exit when he addressed her once again. "I may not know why you're here, but I know that the Kazekage didn't send you, I wonder how Baki would feel about that?"

"If you're going to threaten me, pick someone who could actually stand a chance." Miyako then narrowed her eyes and a thought came to her head. "In fact, I find it interesting that you would know the Kazekage's plans so…intimately, for that to happen, you would have to be "close"." She emphasizes her air quotes and she doesn't have to say anything more for Kabuto to be impressed. It wasn't nearly enough evidence to prove it, but it settled the suspicion Miyako had when she'd first woken up in Suna and heard about this whole fiasco—the Kazekage was likely dead.

"Oh, you're not denying it, which means you aren't really here for Suna after all." Kabuto leaned back to observe her, smug grin still on his face. "What is it then? Give me a hint."

Miyako rolled her eyes, over this conversation and the games Kabuto was attempting to play. She'd have to stun him then if she wanted to leave without being dragged on any longer.

"Listen, I don't really care what your plans are for Sasuke, or Konoha, and as a result Suna, for that matter. I won't interfere, so you can relax." She shrugged and shouldered past him on her way out the doorway.

"Oh, am I simply meant to take your word for it?" Miyako didn't turn around, what was the point?

"You don't bother me Kabuto, I don't bother you. Let's keep it at that, shall we?" Before he could retort she was gone, leaving the still grinning man with no less questions than he came with.

'Stalking Sasuke but wanting nothing to do with him? Claiming to be a Suna ninja and not caring about what happens to them? My, my, what a fun little mystery to be thrown into the mix.' Kabuto stood where Miyako previously occupied, her presence diminishing as if it had never even existed every second he stood there contemplating. He was certain even a ninja-dog would have trouble tracking her scent.

'She's clearly skilled for a 13 year old, if that is her real age. She could be a great asset, if only I had the time to truly stalk you as I want to Maki Miyako.' Kabuto grinned and straightened his glasses to minimize the glare. 'You're good, but are you better than me? One day I hope to answer that question. Sadly, a Right Hand's work is never done.'

G/M

Sasuke was on the ground struggling under a grown man with the same getup as Kabuto when Miyako made her way back around to the battle arena. On the screen in the corner was Sasuke's name and the presumably the man's alias, which she didn't care enough to learn. At this angle she couldn't see what the man was doing besides holding him down, but she guessed it was a ninjutsu that, combined with his fatigue and whatever the fuck Orochimaru had done to him, was taking its toll.

She had tracked her eyes over to the Sand team, they all looked deceptively calm, most of all Gaara, but her eyes laser-focused on his crossed arms. She could see his fingers curled in a white fist around his gourd strap, though his folded arm cleverly hid it from view.

Sasuke had stopped moving and for a moment Miyako was convinced that he was dead and volleyed her eyes between the very still Sasuke and Gaara at least a hundred times in the sixty seconds it took for Sasuke to kick the man off of him. She then watched him make a weak attempt at dodging and weaving and realized that his opponent was literally playing with him. And, she darted her eyes up to the only other sensei on the Sand team's side, barely suppressing a shiver and the sheer frigidity of his aura slithering through the air in thinly veiled excitement, it seemed it was on Orochimaru's request.

"SASUKE! You call yourself an Uchiha with that performance!" Miyako, well no, everyone, darted their eyes to Naruto at his outburst. "You can do better than that!"

'It's like a reverse cheerleader or something.' She bit back a giggle at the thought of Naruto waving around pompoms and shouting backhanded compliments obnoxiously.

Gaara's restless energy pulled him back to his emotions, a violent swirl of raging disappointment and chilling killer apathy. It seemed he was setting himself up for an unsatisfactory ending, maybe even perhaps changing his mind about killing Sasuke.

Mingled gasps brought Miyako back to the field of battle, where Sasuke had apparently vanished, to collective surprise, only to reappear quickly and kick his opponent up into the air. Miyako studied the stunned faces of the present company, but Lee, Gai and Kakashi's were her focus.

'Gai was pissed at Kakashi the other day because Sasuke and Lee fought—could he have copied this from Lee with his Sharingan?' She grimaced and looked back to the battle. 'But still, how can he even move at this point? He's not Naruto with boundless chakra, or Sakura who hardly uses any skillsets that require it.' She sighed as she saw Gaara watching with rapt attention now. Sasuke paused for a moment, which seemed to put everyone on edge, including some interesting faces like Anko, 'So she definitely knows what that mark on his body is about, interesting,' and for others it put them on the edge of euphoria, obviously Orochimaru who looked as if he was about to have an orgasm he was so pleased.

But then he completed his Taijutsu move, no marks to be found on his body, noted. Anko and the other officials looked halfway between shocked and proud, Kakashi was giving her proud papa vibes all day. And Gaara, well, he was shaking…in anticipation.

'So much for him losing interest.' Miyako internally sighed and turned her back to the wall to sit for a moment. She massaged the bridge of her nose and mentally prepared herself for the reception she might receive. She not only had to deal with however Gaara felt about her now 24 hours after she'd basically alluded that she had the capability to kill him, but with his renewed interest in killing Sasuke to prove his worth. Yay.

G/M

To the outside world, Miyako entered into the third exam's small arena like she owned the place and was inviting the party to begin now that she'd arrived, with model-esque stature and swinging hips. Well, that's what it seemed like to Kakashi who was just passing by with Sasuke, and Anko who was just about to exit with Iruka and Ibiki, and Baki who rolled his eyes to express just how done he was.

She even had the audacity to wink at Kakashi as they made eye contact. Wink! As if they were pals. They were not! It sent the hawk-eyed leaf genin into a titter and the equally hawk-eyed, but much better at hiding it, Sand squad into a mixture of confusion and annoyance.

"MAKI!" Anko couldn't resist shouting, waving her fist like a stereotypical old woman. "Who do you think you are, huh?"

Miyako paused in her walk of fierceness to wave happily to crazy friend. "Hi Anko-chan!" She said cheerfully, eyes curving into "u"s.

Anko had just sucked in a breath to continue her rant, when Ibiki interrupted her. "Anko please, let's go, I don't want to have to teleport with you anywhere kicking and screaming again."

Anko huffed but agreed, not without giving Miyako a threatening but somehow friendly "I'm watching you" stare down.

"Byyyyeeee~" Miyako sing-songed and made her way up to the awaiting Sand siblings, only one of which found her antics funny. Only one guess as to whom. The other was thrown off, and well Gaara… she sensed a sudden unease as she inserted herself next to him. There were flittering thoughts of suspicion and paranoia, but almost as if he knew she could sense it, though none of this played out on the outside, those feelings were cut off. He only gave her a cool glance, before looking back out on the rapidly clearing field.

"Did you leave?" Temari groused, one eyebrow arched to express her, only slight, interest in this topic. Miyako gave Gaara a sidelong glance before giving an easy "yup." Temari gave Baki a glance of her own that Miyako decided to ignore for now to instead survey the room.

She obviously saw Kakashi leave with Sasuke, without the presence of any medical ninja, which only let her know that he must have some inkling of what Sasuke's weird new neck tattoo meant. She would see further into that, but she was serious when she told Kabuto that she wouldn't interfere in his plans, and she also didn't want to give Gaara any conflicting ideas. Well, any more conflicting ideas.

Orochimaru was also, not surprisingly, gone. She hoped it was because he wasn't interested in the rest of the matches and not because he was going to meddle with Sasuke. If Kakashi was alone she didn't think he could take Orochimaru, hell even she didn't have full confidence that she could take Orochimaru, and she wasn't lacking in self-esteem or power.

There were lingering stares from the remaining participants, the majority of the interest coming from the Leaf genin on the other side of the arena. Miyako supposed that her entrance had stirred up talk. She happened to make eye contact with Gai who gave her a Nice Guy© pose. She waved sheepishly back, fully aware that Lee's round eyes were boring into her in an odd type of investigation. Naruto was also staring at her quite obviously a look of too intense concentration on his frowning face and crossed arms.

"Why did you leave anyway?" Kankuro suddenly questioned, tilting his head in Miyako's direction though he still attempted to feign disinterest.

"I was tired of sharing trees with 20 foot long leeches." She deadpanned, the proctor announcing the next match interrupted Kankuro from continuing to pry further.

The monitor showed Zaku and Shino, and Miyako raised a brow. She would've thought the boy would've forfeited after Sasuke broke his arms, but his bravado seemed to extend past deadly forests.

The boy passed them to walk down the stairs, and Kankuro had at least enough tact to wait until he was on the arena floor to begin questioning Miyako.

"What do you think Miyako, you've seen this guy fight right?" He smirked. "Don't know how he's going to fight with one arm though."

Miyako hummed noncommittally. "His arms are the star of his jutsu, and that's without handsigns. He can channel pressurized air through the holes in his hands. I don't know how well he'll fair with only one." Miyako shifted slightly closer to Gaara and leaned forward on the railing, taking into account his slight twitch but doing nothing to assuage his fear.

"And that's on top of knowing nothing about Shino's jutsu. I didn't get a chance to see Kurenai's team in action, they apparently made it to the tower in less than 24 hours as well." She sniffed. "Shortly after you three in fact."

The match started, with Shino warning immediately that Zaku should forfeit. Miyako appreciated how no nonsense the boy was.

"You didn't answer the question," Kankuro grumbled. Miyako didn't even look at him, taking the time to study why Shino seemed so confident.

Zaku made some kind of declaration about not underestimating him and dramatically revealed his arm. Shino seemed unbothered and Miyako smirked.

"Definitely Shino, I don't know what he can do, but Zaku is too desperate to prove himself with nothing to back it up." 'Also, there's something shifting and serious about his aura, I get the feeling I'm being watched in every direction without his eyes anywhere near me.'

As Shino outmaneuvered Zaku's air attacks within two moves, Miyako watched Gaara out of the corner of her eye. He seemed engrossed, his aura having calmed from its wound up state earlier when watching Sasuke, and then Miyako's appearance.

"If you're so psychic Miyako, who is he going to choose to attack, the bugs or the bug wielder?" Kankuro shivered just slightly after he said, nose shriveling at the prospect of bugs crawling throughout his body.

Miyako noticed the slight twitch in his still bound arm and sighed at the foolishness of young people. "It doesn't matter, whatever he chooses to do next is going to end this for him." Shino struck her as the overly prepared type.

And so it did, Miyako even slightly winced at the explosion of visible chakra bursting from the holes in his now stuffed arms. She could see the small beetles scuttling almost contently around every opening in his arms. She heard Temari mutter a "gross" under her breath. Miyako gave a slight thought of sympathy out to Zaku, but really, he was a stupid boy at the end of the day. He should've forfeited with Kabuto, she certainly wasn't aware of everyone else's jutsu, but she doubted he would've won against most of the remaining genin. Getting duped by Orochimaru into fighting Sasuke was bad enough, but pulling Shino as his opponent was the cruelest fate.

Shino was declared the winner and while they were clearing the field, Miyako stared off into space. Instead of lamenting once again over how she'd decided to proceed with Gaara, she jumped instead to how she still hadn't contrived of a plan to pull him from his current state.

She thought back to what she said to Kabuto, how she wouldn't mess with any of Orochimaru's plans, and while it was mostly true, if push came to shove Sasuke was a piece she was willing to sacrifice. She knew that if Sasuke and Gaara fought, Gaara would sink further. She doubted Sasuke could kill Gaara, not at the level he was at now, but if he even managed to injure him, who knew what that trigger inside Gaara?

Actually, why hadn't she thought of that possibility? Gaara had never experienced physical injury, at least if the trend of his childhood had continued, which she was sure it had. If someone managed to injure him, what would happen?

It was enough of a shock to Gaara to know that someone could be unaffected by his sand, something she'd proven yesterday afternoon after brushing it off like shooing a fly. If she went off of the reaction he had well into the night yesterday, a stream of unstable thoughts that had eventually settled into an eerie calm of kill or be killed, then it wouldn't be good.

Aside from the fact that putting Gaara into a situation where he could get seriously injured made her skin itch. It went against the unwritten laws in her head, she wasn't even allowed to fathom a world where her master could possibly die without her protection, at least not while she was still attached to him.

Kankuro's scoff of satisfaction pulled her from her spiral of thoughts. She reflexively looked up to screen to see his name with an unfamiliar one. So the other of Kabuto's teammates then.

"My turn. No need to predict Miyako, I'm going to wipe the floor with this guy." The boy sauntered off to the chorus of Temari's scoff and Gaara's unimpressed stare.

"Not that we need that idiot losing, but you wouldn't happen to know anything about his opponent, would you?" Temari was clearly speaking to Miyako, but she never took her eyes off of Kankuro, who unstrapped the bandaged Crow puppet from his back before the proctor could even announce the match.

"No, I didn't see this team at all in the forest." She drawled. "His abilities are as much of a mystery to me as they are to you." Temari scoffed, but Miyako didn't particularly care to engage with her right now. She was sure Kankuro would do fine, something else was bothering her now though.

Orochimaru left right after Sasuke's match, and seemed overly pleased during the whole thing, as if he'd known exactly what was going on. Coupled with the fact that he'd looked weirdly mixed between disappointed and impressed when Sasuke had finished with his Lion's Barrage Taijutsu, added onto the fact that Sasuke's opponent was apparently one of his lackeys, and you had recipe that clearly spelled the match having been rigged. She didn't see exactly what Sasuke's opponent had done to him during their fight, but Orochimaru was expecting something out of it, the activation of that weird tattoo she'd seen in the forest.

'So it must be triggered by fatigue or low chakra, because it only showed up the morning in the forest after Sasuke suffered through the night with fever. Additionally, his aura felt less tampered with during his match here than it did out in the forest. Orochimaru was trying to coax the power of that mark out of Sasuke during the match—and when he didn't get what he wanted, he followed Kakashi and Sasuke. But to what end?' Miyako shook herself out of that rabbit hole of thoughts again, she'd only frustrate herself with the lack of answers. Answers she really only wanted because she was nosy and not because they had anything remotely to do with Gaara.

'But…if Gaara is so hellbent on fighting Sasuke, what if whatever Orochimaru did to him gives him a fighting chance? Shouldn't I find out what it is just so I can know if I need to eliminate it?' Again though, that wasn't why she'd gone down this path in the first place. 'Focus!' She reprimanded herself. What she was really interested in was why Orochimaru had so many throwaway lackeys. First Zaku losing complete use of his arms, and now this man facing Kankuro.

Speaking of, gasps broke her out of her reverie, she really needed to stop going into those during the matches. The man was wrapped around Kankuro like an octopus determined to wrestle its prey into a stranglehold. This in itself would've been shocking enough if "Kankuro's" head wasn't spun around 360 and breaking off into chunks.

Bandages flew from around the still wrapped "Crow" revealing a smug Kankuro manipulating his puppet from afar with chakra strings. Temari rolled her eyes and breathed a "show-off" under her breath. Gaara was still unimpressed. What supportive siblings.

It was over within seconds. Crow was equipped with so many poison-laden blades, Miyako would be surprised if the man was still alive after this. Kankuro returned chipper, chattering to Miyako, because she was the only one who would tolerate him long enough to listen, about how it was easier than he thought. She sure hoped Orochimaru appreciated collateral damage, because he was going to be experiencing plenty of it when these rounds were over.

Miyako's mind drifted back onto her plot, now moving on to her previous theories. The whole reason she had come up with the idea of threatening Gaara was so she could establish that she wasn't going to be like everyone else in Gaara's life. But it was disheartening how the only way she was even able to do that was by threatening him, because she couldn't see any other way working. Gaara didn't tend to care about things that didn't feed back into his reason for existence, and all he lived for now was to kill and any challenge to his strength. Miyako had provided him with a motive for both, and the only reason he hadn't acted yet was because he had no strategy for taking her down.

But, all this proved was that the only way to break Gaara's cycle of violence, was possibly with more violence. What else would catch his attention? She surveyed the remaining participants left to fight Gaara. Dosu, and the other Sound girl, Temari, Lee, Neji, Tenten, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Hinata, Sakura and Naruto. She wasn't sure if any of them could even come close.

But there was still something missing to this strategy. When Miyako had presented as a threat to Gaara yesterday, his response had been something of a slight mental spiral into acute paranoia and to build up a defensive mechanism. If one of these remaining genin managed to injure Gaara, who's to say he wouldn't snap immediately and go in for the kill? For more than the kill? Could she really risk that?

Kakashi had come back while Miyako was lost in thought, Miyako was so attuned to him at this point that she felt him the moment he entered, his aura heavier than normal and immediately catching her attention.

She laser-focused on his form across the field, taking in the way he leaned against the wall and chirpily greeted Naruto, who began to question him too loudly. She wondered if he had encountered Orochimaru after all, though he seemed unscathed, so it must've just been something like a "chat". Whatever a "chat" looked like with Orochimaru that is. Still, he was hiding something, maybe she would bug him later for an answer.

They patiently waited for the next match to be called, no one could tell, but Gaara's hand was flexing rhythmically into and out of ball underneath his arm. Miyako supposed she should take a risk to keep him occupied.

"I didn't ask," she started smoothly, and the other siblings immediately turned to regard her, so sure she was speaking to them, "but were you upset that it wasn't you?" And then Miyako casually angled her body to Gaara as if they did this every day. By the flabbergasted looks on the siblings' faces, anyone could tell that was false.

Gaara wasn't keen on answering at first, even though he was well aware of what she was referring to. His fist clenched once more before smoothing out and he spoke evenly. "No, he isn't ready yet."

Miyako bit her lip to keep from sighing in disbelief. "Oh? You're giving him time to prepare now? How generous." The siblings immediately caught on to who they were talking about at this point and timidly passed their eyes between the two, recognizing that there was something off about this exchange.

Gaara didn't reply to her jab, just hummed noncommittally. The proctor finally announced the next match, and Miyako thought she would wiggle just a little more out of Gaara before he potentially got sucked into the match.

"What are you going to do if whoever is after him gets to him before you can?" She whispered, not even bothering to pay attention to the board as the others were. Neither, it seemed, was Gaara, who looked intently ahead the entire time.

The thought seemed to bother him and he glared straight ahead, his arms tightening across his body and jaw slightly ticking. It seems he was more upset about the idea of not getting a go at him that he wanted her to believe.

Sakura looked startled on the other side of the building and looked to Ino. Well wouldn't this be interesting?

She knew some of what Sakura could do, or maybe all of what Sakura could do, and she knew Ino could occupy people's bodies, it seemed like an easy win. But, maybe she shouldn't count Sakura out yet, what with that determined look on her face.

"Kunoichi, this is going to be booooooring." Kankuro bemoaned suddenly. Temari gave him a good whack for his mouth. "Idiot! Don't characterize us all the same." She sniffed and gazed sidelong at Miyako, subtly asking for backup it seemed.

"Yeah Kankuro, are you saying you could take me in a fight?" Miyako's eyes sparkled mischievously as they met Kankuro's. "Maybe." He mumbled under his breath. Temari hit him on the head again. "Well you couldn't take me, idiot. And you don't know what Miyako can do, so you can't make any claims." Temari regarded Miyako again. "But I do have to agree that these girls don't look like much, Miyako."

The spy hummed and titled her head. "Sakura's jutsu isn't anything flashy, but I do have to give it to her that she's tenacious and good at basic strategy." Miyako leaned up against the rail and provided the rest of what she knew. "Ino has a jutsu that allows the user to take over an opponent's body at the expense of her own, meaning that her consciousness leaves her own body vulnerable to attacks."

"So its game, set, match then." Kankuro guessed, draping himself over the railing like a kid. "Wait, which one is Ino?"

"Really? Why don't you take a wild guess as to which one is named after a pink flower?" Miyako chided. Kankuro at least had the decency to look embarrassed.

The match had started while they had been chattering, but it didn't look like anything all that interesting had happened, they'd just put their headbands on their foreheads, which looked significant from the glares they were sporting.

"I feel as though I've missed something profound." Miyako mused as the two suddenly launched themselves at each other. "Really?" Kankuro squinted. "What did they do?"

Temari shushed him as Sakura landed a blow, demanding Ino take her seriously. After that it was like Miyako was watching two clones battle each other, they were mirrored in their movements, negating everything the other did for a long stretch of time that in ninja battles was exceedingly long.

Gaara was twitching against, but in this instance it was out of annoyance. Temari looked ready to end the fight herself and Kankuro was collapsed against the railing in dramatic fashion, whining to Miyako to make it stop.

Finally Ino seemingly snapped, cutting off her hair in one dramatic swoop that had her friends and colleagues gasping, but the Sand siblings confused. She threw it across the length between her and Sakura screeching something about not needing her hair and then proceeded to make a handsign that looked familiar to Miyako.

"Wait," she interrupted Kankuro's onslaught of quiet whining, "this is the handsign for the jutsu I told you about earlier."

Temari perked up. "Oh yeah, why didn't she use it earlier? This could've been over with by now."

Miyako observed Asuma and the rest of Ino's teammates worried faces. "There must be a flaw in the jutsu. Certain conditions that have to be met." Miyako suspected. She couldn't tell at the time when Asuma's team was fighting the Sound ninja what the drawbacks were aside from Ino taking physical damage should the body she was occupying be attacked. But in this instance that wasn't going to be a problem if she completed the jutsu successfully.

Sakura explained the jutsu, which drew a simultaneous "oh" from the siblings, save Gaara of course. But things took another turn when Ino "missed" only to trap Sakura with Chakra string.

"Oh, so that wasn't a mental breakdown she was having? It was intentional, hmmm, ouch! Temari—" Kankuro and Temari squabbled for a moment as Ino now completed her jutsu with a trapped Sakura.

"Shut up you two, I think its ending." She swatted in their direction and pointed to the passed out Ino and the grinning Sakura raising her hand. Kankuro melded himself to the bars in excitement, Temari gripping the railing too in anticipation. Even Gaara's twitching seemed to be in anticipation of the end now.

Sakura was in the middle of stating her intent to forfeit, when Naruto interrupted her, another impassioned speech for his teammate at the ready.

"No, Sakura-chan! Don't lose to that Sasuke-obsessed girl after you worked so hard to get here!" He shouted, quite obnoxiously, and Gaara's frown deepened.

'Oh, interesting. Does Naruto bother you Gaara? That must be noted.'

Miyako could sense in Sakura's aura the overpowering scent cinnamon steadily encasing Ino's sharp floral colors. It was weird to feel two different presences dance in the same body. If other people could know what she knew they'd understand that while on the outside it looked comical, although far too close to home for Miyako as this was a typical Gaara breakdown pose, it was internally an epic struggle.

Somehow, miraculously, Sakura managed to release herself from the jutsu, to everyone's surprise at this point, even Gaara's, whose only clue was the slight widening of his eyes.

They scrounged up enough energy to run at each other, the two looking like mirrors once again with twin determined faces, and subsequently…

"They knocked each other out!" Kankuro deflated. "All that build up, and for what?" He bemoaned. Everyone ignored his petulant sulking, all caught up in their own thoughts, Miyako's the most dangerous of all.

'Naruto affects Gaara,' she threw another sidelong glance at her master before descending back into her own head, 'I don't know how yet, but the conclusion is clear. Gaara and Naruto share the same burden, just under different circumstances, as I've already concluded. Naruto is Gaara's antithesis, and it seems that something about him…irks Gaara to some degree. Yet, though they are on the same playing field as far as power, Gaara doesn't recognize this in him, he underestimates him.' Having Naruto fight Gaara sounded like a terrible idea on paper. He wasn't nearly as skilled as far as ninjutsu is concerned, or in accessing the demon's power inside him as Gaara was. Add to that, the significant drop in power she'd felt from him after the forest, meaning he somehow had lost access to the demon, as the duality was no longer present in his aura as it was for Gaara.

'It's as Gaara said about Sasuke. Naruto's not ready yet.' But, she did notice that the kid had a way with words. Whether the two would readily admit it or not, Sasuke and Sakura had been pushed from totally losing because Naruto had intervened and said just what needed to be said. If she could somehow have Naruto use this unique power of his to influence Gaara's thinking, then it would definitely make more of an impact than simply trading blows with one another.

'However, even I know battle can't totally be avoided, so I have to keep Naruto away from Gaara until I can finagle a way for him influence Gaara the way he so desperately needs. As discreetly as possible of course.'

But there was still some doubt to be diffused. Did it work on more than just Sasuke and Sakura? Maybe they were used to being pep-talked by Naruto since they were always on a team with him. She resolved that if he could influence someone outside his team, than she'd move forward with a plan involving him. However, right now, she knew Naruto needed to avoid battling Gaara at all costs.

She guessed it was time to do a little match rigging herself, no one would have to know.

Whew! What a ride of emotions that was. Let me know what you thought pretties! Until the next one 3

.Acronym