-15-

Mad Eyes

When I was eleven years old, I had reached the final grade in the academy. It wasn't really the last grade, but it was common knowledge that anyone who didn't take the exam this year was a coward and wasn't likely to be worth the effort in being assigned a decent jounin in the long run.

I hadn't changed much over the years. My hair was still an untamable mess of half-dried-blood-coloured red-brown-bugundy hair that stood up in little cow-licks in some places and twisted in awkward little half curls that reached an inch or so past my shoulders, I was tan from hours and hours under the sun (I prayed to all the assholes up in the heavens (Even fucking Jashin at this point) that skin cancer wasn't a thing here), although not nearly as dark as I expected, likely from some added effect chakra had on the body...natural sunblock? The mark on my face hadn't changed much, just growing as my body did. It had extended slightly too, now going past my jaw and starting to move back under my jaw towards my ear. I liked to think that if the mark was a tear streak, then it was heading down my neck because I had tilted my head back to look at the sky at some point. I'd obviously gotten taller...not a lot taller...But it was still better than nothing! I had broad-ish shoulders and it sorta looked like I was going to get boobs and hips sooner or later.

But hey...If they didn't show up, I wasn't really sure 'd care all that much. Boobs'd just get in the way.

The graduation exam was easy enough. Way easier than the hell Satoru, Taiki, Saki and 'Sora' put me through. All this 'exam' was was a written exam on information we went over every year since joining the academy. It was laughable. I knew that we had different standards than Konoha, but I figured there'd be some slightly challenging questions.

Maybe I wasn't one to talk though. I did already know most of the basic knowledge that children had to learn in school, so the only information I actually absorbed was new information I'd picked up in books and from my 'teachers'. It made remembering things like shinobi laws and codes and stuff like that a lot easier than it probably should have been. Growing up, I had to learn, or die of boredom.

Besides the written exam (Which was poorly written, might I add. Fifteen fucking spelling mistakes?), there was a physical test. Hit the bulls-eye. Fight a chuunin. Do the three basic jutsu. Yay.

I understood what they were doing here. They made graduation easy, because we needed more shinobi out on the field. We needed to make it look like we had plenty of man power, and that our village wasn't ready to collapse. In recent years, the economy had worsened even further, and this year there was a drought, far worse than any seen in the last decade, and that made Suna's most valuable resource nearly impossible to find. Shinobi, no matter what their rank, or even if they were retired with water chakra affinities were being assigned missions where they spent days pumping out water jutsu so people could collect the water. They made water until they were ready to collapse, then they slept a few hours, only to start again.

It seemed almost wrong...drinking water produced by other people's chakra. Was it even real water? Or was it like...transfiguring food in Harry Potter, where there was actually a time limit, and the food you ate eventually turned back to what ever you had transfigured? Only, here it just turned back to chakra?

Either way, neither of my parents would be there for my graduation because both Taiki and Saki had water affinities. Satoru and I were spared from having to join them, because out chakra made it impossible to produce actual water. Just tree sap.

The headband shone brightly in the hot desert sun, and I could feel it heat the dark red fabric it was attached to. Somehow, holding that little scrap of fabric and metal made me feel like, for once, the weight of the world actually rested on my shoulders.

I had knowledge. I knew what would happen during the exams next year, the outcome of the battle, I knew who the future Kazekage would be, who the Hokage would be. I knew the names of most of the tailed beast hosts. I knew each member of the Akatsuki and their leader. I knew so much. Except for the last half of the final battle. Never got around to the end.

Still, I could save so many people.

And the best part of all?

I didn't want to.

They could all die. They could all rot in the depths of Hell and suffer for all I cared.

There were only a handful of lives I intended to save. Only the people who mattered to me. I'd fight for their lives.

And if I happened to save more lives on the way, because it was necessary to do so to save my people...then great. There's my good deed for the day.

"Congrats kid." Carl-sensei said as I walked past him on my way past the gates around the academy.

I stopped and looked up at him. He offered a grin.

"You're just happy because I'm not your problem anymore."

"You're right! Ha! I can finally go back on active duty. I hated you little brats." He told me, shrugging. His grin was feral and nearly murderous with the bloodlust he must have been holding back since he started teaching us. Poor guy.

He'd never really been academy teacher material though.

And given his relationship with 'Sora' I was inclined to believe the guy wasn't even a chuunin. It made sense in a way. He was Gaara's Academy teacher. He'd have to be strong enough to save all the other 'little angels'. Pah. Those kids had been the spawn of Satan himself. Damn prick should learn to keep it in his pants. There were enough demons running around in this world.

"Aw, you know you love me."

"Ai-chan, don't scare your teacher." Satoru's voice drawled. I turned to look at him. He was tucking a book into his pocket as he walked closer. He hadn't changed much over the years. He still didn't have a headband to show which village he belonged to, and he was just as fit as always. He'd gained a few scars from sparing with Machiko and I, but otherwise he still looked like a mirror image of my father. It had been creepy at first, but truth be told, I hardly noticed now.

Satoru was too...relaxed to be mixed up with my father.

Sure, there were times when Taiki could walk at a sedate pace, reading a book as he effortlessly weaved through the foot traffic, waving off the people he pissed off with nothing more than a distracted hum, just like Satoru (and a part of me suspected Kakashi had to do something similar during his spare time), but a lot of the time my father was zipping around like the S-rank shinobi he was, and spouting rants about 'doing your best', 'believing in a better tomorrow,' 'faith, trust and pixie dust' and a number of other rants that made me think he was born to be the main character of some action manga.

I'd never heard Satoru preach main character propaganda. Appearance was where the similarities between my father and his...cousin?...stopped.

"If that's all it takes to scare him, I should have been calling him Carla-sensei since day one instead."

Carl-sensei's brow furrowed in confusion, "What?"

"Nothing to worry your pretty little head over." I said, smiling condescendingly as I patted his arm. I flashed him a more friendly grin, before ducking as my personal yandere came flying. Had I stood still, she would have taken me to the ground.

"Aisako-sama!" Her arms were wrapped around me in an instant, tight as a vice. I didn't even bother trying to escape. In the five years it had been since she'd started the academy, Machiko had gained an insane amount of physical strength.

She could snap an adult's arm with one hand.

That was always fun to watch.

"Hello Machiko." I said in a dull tone, ignoring how she loomed over me by like...a good six inches? It just wasn't right. I was the older one...why'd I end up the tiny one?

"Aisako-sama~! Machiko passed her exam, and now Machiko can be a ninja just like Aisako-sama!"

I smiled at her, "You know I've been a ninja for about as long as you have, right? I just passed the test today."

"Yes, but Aisako-sama has always been a ninja."

The tone in her voice was odd, but I didn't question it. Long-term exposure to my father meant she'd occasionally spout something that was meant to be inspiring. I'd luckily grown an immunity to inspirational speeches at an even faster pace than I did most poisons.

I didn't bother to ask her what she mean, and instead offered a weak smile and a shrug.

She removed her arms from around me and instead settled for gripping my arm. She always had to have a hand on me, for some reason. She had a constant need for the contact, I suppose.

Part of me thought it might have been from the orphanage. We'd tried to adopt her into our family, like we had with Takeo, but the village refused to grant permission. I'd heard the woman at the orphanage mutter something along the lines of 'Children go bad in that house. Children go mad in that house', what ever the fuck that meant. I mean, please. I was the epitome of sanity.

And I was a fucking angel.

But since we couldn't take her from the orphanage, she'd had to grow up there...and Suna's orphanage wasn't a good place in these economically poor times.

Add in the fact that she was one of my people, and that made her the enemy of just about every other child in the building. Contact with someone who wasn't interested in hurting her was the least I could do.

"You two were a living hell to teach." Carl-sensei said, shaking his head, but there was a smirk on his scarred face.

"We'll be sure to visit, Carl-sensei!" I told him, before Machiko started dragging me away, saying something about us making a cake back at my house to celebrate.

"Stop calling me that, dammit! My name is-"

"Seeya Carl!" Satoru shouted over him, before the three of us took off running.

Poor bastard.

Machiko cheerfully devoured the cake on her plate while Satoru and I shared an amused look.

"So, Machiko has decided Machiko and Aisako-sama will be on the same team tomorrow." She told us as she finished swallowing the cake in her mouth.

Satoru and I once again locked eyes, "Machiko, I began, "you can't just decide who goes on what team. The Kazekage decides that."

"Machiko will arrange it."

"Oh?" Satoru asked, "And how will you do that?"

"Machiko will just kill someone on her team to make a spot for Aisako-sama, and then kill Aisako-sama's team. OR, Machiko will kill someone on Aisako-sama's team to make a space for Machiko and then kill Machiko's team."

Satoru stared at her for a moment, and then shook his head, "I miss the kids back in Ame. They never plotted murder just to be on the same team...well...most of them."

"And if you get caught?"

Machiko beamed at me before reciting, "If Machiko gets involved in any illegal activities that can or may result in Machiko getting arrested, demoted, and/or executed, Machiko is to ask Sora-sensei for help, because Machiko is a valuable asset in keeping Aisako-sama safe."

"And they didn't have connections with people like Sora..." Satoru continued to quietly lament. Yet another poor bastard who couldn't handle the sheer fucked up-ness of this universe.

'Sora' had pretty much drilled it into Machiko's head to trust him, since he was 'interested in Aisako-chan's well being.' I still didn't know his angle, but sometimes I'd catch this expression on his face as he taught us, and he'd be looking at me with...curious awe, or something like that. Like he wanted to know more about me, but at the same time, he knew something about me, and what ever it was, it was something that amazed him.

It wasn't the Amber, because he never looked at Satoru like that, so I just couldn't figure it out.

I didn't really care what his angle was. I just didn't appreciate him trying to steal my pawn. He was always trying to make her tell him things about me. He wanted her to become an informant. He was always telling her that 'If anything is ever wrong with Ai, or she seems upset, or more distant than usual, you know you can come to me, right Machiko? I only want to protect he, just like you'. Of course, Machiko always came and told me everything he told her, so his plan never really worked.

Wasn't it good enough that he had me? I mean, I knew what he was doing with me. I didn't understand why, but he was training me to become an assassin. An assassin with political know-how. Which meant that if I did continue down the path he was laying, I'd likely be taking on high-profile targets. I'd have to know how to handle any political backlash.

I was playing right into 'Sora's' hands...but...It was what I wanted. I was still in control here.

"That's right. Good girl." I told Machiko, smiling as I ruffled her long blond hair, which she had released from her usual pair of pigtails after we'd gotten to my house. She pouted at me for messing with her hair, but still grinned, happy I was 'proud' of her.

"Ai...are you going to wear your new leg tomorrow?" Satoru asked me.

I grinned in excitement.

For my birthday, my parents had given me a new leg. A puppet leg.

I'd already had one for a year or so, but it was extremely basic, and it was just to get me used to the drain of using it. It wasn't even that bad of a drain, and I could cut the chakra off and use it like a normal prosthetic, but it was hard to move at high speeds with out using the internal chakra strings.

My new leg was fucking perfect.

There were a shit ton of internal cavities where I could place vials of poison, senbon, wire and kunai. There was also a place for me to place a mission scroll. It would be handy for the exams...wouldn't it? The materials it was made of were tough enough that if could take quite a few hits before it broke, despite the empty places inside it, which should had weakened it. Suna was good for its puppet masters. Of course, Kazuo had to be the one to order it, otherwise I'm sure some prick would have made sure it was a piece of shit if Saki or Taiki had ordered it. There were also built in blades that could be activated in case anyone tried to grab it, as well as a blade in the toe and heel, so I could make my kicks with it just a little more deadly.

I would need a little bit of training with it so I could learn to flawlessly activate the blades, and to open the cavities to get my poisons and senbon without pause, but fuck was I excited.

"Fuck yes!"

"Alright, just don't break it."

"How the fuck would I break it?!"

"That's what you said about your last casual prosthetic."

"That was hardly my fault!" I protested, "There were like, ten guys! Besides, it was a piece of shit anyways."

"You hospitalized three of them by bludgeoning them with your plastic leg. Of course it was going to break."

Machiko giggled, and I smiled at fond memories of earlier in the year.

Flashback

Machiko and I walked calmly down the dark, poorly lit street. I was taking her back to the orphanage for the night. We intended to let her live with my family once she graduated. Because she would be legally considered an adult, the orphanage would be giving her the boot the moment she did. Until then, she had to stay there, at the orphanage. They threw a bitchfit whenever she came back to the orphanage too late at night, so we had to bring her back before they accused my family of kidnapping her or something.

There was no moon that night, reaching the end of its cycle, so we had to rely on our own vision and the occasional light that illuminated a small segment of the street. Down the street, we could hear a group of men laughing and stumbling around. It wasn't that late, but they were clearly hammered. I missed my alcohol...

We made sure to stay on the other side of the street to avoid them. Drunks were the worst. Fearless. Immoral.

I heard what some people said. They were the real monsters...talking about what they wanted to do. To put me in my place...crush my spirit...kill me. But the drunks were the worst. They'd try to kill me. Sometimes they'd try to do even worse.

One drunk, when I was eight, had told me, in detail, what he planned to do to me before he killed me.

His life was the first human one that I ended with my own two hands and chakra.

I'd enjoyed every second of watching the life flicker from his eyes as he laid on the ground, gasping for breath from the gaping hole I'd sliced into his throat. Even after he'd died, I sat there, smiling at the long, jagged shard of amber I'd used to slit him open, produced from where he'd swung his own knife at my arm. He'd wanted me to 'bleed a little first'. I showed him bleeding.

When it was all said and done, I put the amber in my pocket and went to 'Sora' to tell him the 'great news'. He'd gotten rid of the corpse for me.

The man hadn't been the first drunk, or the last, but he'd been graphic enough to make me fear him, just a little. The fear was all I had needed to attack in return. And the fear was enough to make me remember it. I didn't like drunks.

So Machiko and I avoided them. She hadn't been with me that nigh, since I'd dropped her off at the orphanage before it happened, so she was livid when she saw the cut. She made sure we avoided drunks from then on too.

As we walked down the street, hoping to pass by the drunks, I could hear the exact moment those hopes were crushed.

"Hey, dude...look'it! There's that...little...monster bitch..." One of them said. It was clear from his voice that he was waaaaaaaay too many bottles over the limit.

"An' her girlfren'..."

"Let's get'em! My lil'bro can't walk 'cause of 'er..."

Well shoot.

Machiko's hand left mine as we both prepared ourselves for what would likely be an easy fight. I didn't fear drunks for their battle prowess, unless they were Lee and his drunken fist.

There were a lot of them though. If we moved fast enough, it would be fine...but we'd have to take care not to use deadly force. I knew I could get away with squashing their feeble little lives under my sandal like the insects they were, but 'Sora' sometimes got grumpy since we made so much paperwork. He said he got more than the Kazekage some days. That was fucking impressive, since the Kazekage's secretaries had to use chakra to carry the stacks they brought to his office.

They came stumbling across the empty street, one fumbling with a civilian knife, made of cheaper metal than a kunai or a shinobi weapon, another slipping brass knuckles on. I was a little impressed that one could still move his hands well enough to actually put them on. I counted around ten drunks, more of them pulling out feeble little weapons and sighed. There would still be paperwork for 'Sora'. Oh well. He could bitch all he liked. If people stopped attacking me, this wouldn't be a problem for any of us.

I let a smile slip onto my face as they got closer. Machiko was doing some strange little wiggle in her excitement to start fighting. Her blood lust was nearly as bad as mine.

The first drunk reached us, and Machiko leapt at him to stop him from approaching me. I settled for the next drunk, this one armed with a knife. I ducked under a sloppy swing to deliver a sharp uppercut to his jaw, making his head tilt upward. I brought my leg up and sent a powerful kick to his stomach. The man stumbled backwards into another.

I moved on to the next drunk, who was trying to grab my arm. I used his own move against him, grabbing him by the arm and shoulder. I twisted the arm behind him, making him drop to his knees. I pushed him over and held him down with my prosthetic, while using chakra to my other foot to keep it in place on the ground.

Then, I continued twisting his arm until it gave a delightful little 'POP!"

The man started screaming as he thrashed on the ground. I took a step back, knowing he wouldn't be fighting anymore. What a wuss puss.

My smile grew.

It dropped the instant I heard Machiko make a noise somewhere between a yelp of pain and a scream. I spun around to see one of the men yanking his knife out of her leg and stabbing it back in while two of the larger drunks held her still.

"Oh for fuck's sake-"

Before I could move to help her, something barreled into my side with enough force to knock me over. One man held me down and snared in my face. Another stumbled over and dropped to his knees so he could punch me without toppling over. As his fist flew down and smashed into my face, my eyes caught sight of a knife not far away.

My chakra was eager to be put to work, but I had to force it to obey me. It wanted to lash out and worm its way through the veins of the men attacking me. But I only needed one itty-bitty little chakra string.

Ignoring he fact that some fucking drunken prick was beating the shit out of me, my chakra string finally latched onto the knife and in an instant I was slashing at the man doing most of the beating. The knife slid across his eyes and he tossed himself away from me, screaming in pure agony as blood gushed from his hands.

A shiver tore down my spine, but I couldn't tell if it was from fear or disgust...or if it was from pleasure.

Was it bad that I just loved those screams?

I turned the blade on the man still holding me down, this time sliding the blade between the bones in his hand, and then slicing through his flesh until the knife came out between his fingers. His screams were lovely too.

Scrambling to my feet, I frowned unhappily at the clicking noise my prosthetic was making. It was my 'casual' leg, and hardly meant for this kind of activity. I hadn't changed into my 'athletic' leg because I honestly had expected half a bar's worth of men attacking me on my way to return an orphaned girl to the orphanage. You can understand that, right?

Sometimes I forget how much people hated me after I spent so much time being coddled by my collection of humans. They had this nasty habit of making me feel like a normal human being. Shame on them.

Machiko had freed herself from the men attacking her, and one was now clutching a broken hand, another lay unconscious on the ground as blood seeped into the sand from a head wound, and the third was regrouping.

We stood back to back as I tried to slow my heart rate. My blood was pounding loudly in my ears, chakra flaring and desperate to attack. I needed it under control. it really wouldn't do if I lost control...not with all the blood openly exposed. It was harder to cover up who murdered them if they were found with shards of amber poking out of their flesh looking like some weird-ass porcupine-based Pokemon.

Huh. Would they be considered rock-type or grass-type Pokemon, because amber was made from tree-sap?

One drunk stumbled forward and our moment of rest was over. As he barreled towards me, I prepared myself and executed a perfect round-house to his face. He fell back and didn't get up. I normally would have grinned, but I was too busy feeling my blood run cold as there was a loud CRACK.

And my fucking leg fell off.

My arms pin-wheeled for a moment as I tried to catch my balance, sighing in relief when I found it.

With my body stabilized, I watched Machiko take two of the drunks on. She didn't seem too alarmed by our situation, despite the blood seeping out of her leg, staining her already blood-red clothes a darker shade. I knew I wouldn't be left alone for long, so I looked around for a weapon while watching the remaining two drunks.

I knew I was fucking awesome, but this would be a pain with my shitty fucking leg laying over ther-

Oh.

Oh...

A predatory grin flashed across my face as I bent down to grab my prosthetic by the ankle. Never before had I been as glad as I was that my teachers had put me through all that balance training, just for situations like this.

I stood up just in time to swing the leg like a bat and smash it into the face of one of the drunks. The jagged edges of the cracked material cut into his skin, while the impact caused his face to bruise.

The momentum of my swing would have knocked me down if I hadn't used it to hit the second man with my leg before spinning with all the grace of a ballerina. I then used the prosthetic as a brake to stop my spinning without losing my balance. Seeing an opportunity, I tackled the first man I hit with my leg, landing with my remaining knee in his gut so that the wind was knocked out of him. I slid to the side so I was sitting on the man and raised the leg above my head before swinging it down as hard as I could.

Over and over again.

When his friend tried to stop me, I paused in my attack and smacked him away before turning back to the man on the ground beneath me.

I knew I should stop, but I just couldn't. The monster Ai just didn't want to. I usually had better control over that dark, twisted part of me, but she was always there, lurking just beneath the surface like a shark. It was just waiting for a chance to come out.

Ai hit the man over and over again. He probably wasn't even conscious any longer, but Ai didn't want to stop.

I was aware of Machiko standing nearby, having finished fighting her opponents and now watching me have fun. She didn't get herself involved, knowing how Ai might react to losing a toy.

Hands tried to pry me off of him, and Ai decided it was the other man's turn. Ai bludgeoned him with the leg. It seemed like he was jealous that his friend was getting all the attention, so Ai figured he wouldn't mind sharing the experience. Maybe the two friends could bond over their shared memory of being beaten by an eleven year old and her prosthetic limb?

Eventually, my arms started to feel a bit tired from the repetitive motions, and Ai was bored with the lack of reactions she was getting from the unconscious men. I let the severely damaged prosthetic slip from my hands and land with a soft 'thump' on the packed sand. The street fell into silence as Machiko and I sat under the moonlight in a circle of beaten, unconscious men.

Machiko must have knocked the awake ones out. Otherwise there would have been whimpering, cussing and grumbling voices all around us.

Footsteps echoed down the street and I looked away from the man underneath me as 'Sora' made his appearance. He always showed up after all the violence was done. He probably saw the whole thing. Didn't bather to help. Knew he didn't have to.

'Sora' clapped happily as he drew closer, "Good work, Ai-chan! You always were creative in class."

Machiko and I exchanged tired grins at that. Cass had always been fun, using random household items to do all sorts of terrible things to people...

"Now, how about I take you girls home, while my men clean up this mess, alright?"

The shadows around us came to life as masked shinobi came out of hiding. The soundlessly moved to check on the men sprawled around the street. One man made a hand sign to 'Sora', who gave Machiko and I a proud grin.

"And you didn't even kill any of them! Terrific!"

"You just didn't want the paperwork." I told him with a blank expression.

He shrugged, but denied nothing. Instead, he reached down and scooped me up with one arm, like I was nothing more than the young child I had been when we first met. Like I hadn't grown at all or anything. Which I have. Just...not as much as I wanted. It just wasn't fair that he could pick up an eleven year old and still be all graceful and shit.

'Sora' grabbed my fake leg and was about to begin walking when he noticed Machiko's blood stained clothing and her limping gait. He motioned to one of the masked men, and he came forward.

Close up, I could see that the masked men working for 'Sora' were ANBU. They weren't a separate faction like Danzo's ROOT. Instead, I recognized the mask as one of the men who worked for the Kazekage. Over the years, I had been brought to the Kage Tower often enough to recognize a few masks and faces. Unless Operative Scorpion was undercover and working for 'Sora',then that meant 'Sora' controlled the ANBU just as freely as the Kazekage.

Even after all these years, 'Sora's' real identity still alluded me. The bastard.

The ANBU picked up Machiko and he and 'Sora' set off, away from the bloody scene behind us. After a few minutes, the ANBU and Machiko left us and took off in the direction of the orphanage.

I was left being carried home in 'Sora's' arms, wondering how badly Takeo would react. Oh well.

At least I could enjoy a few minutes alone with 'Sora'.

Fucking hot bastard.

End of Flashback

"I still don't understand why Sora let's you two get away with everything..."

"Because we're useful." Machiko and I said in unison, giving the red-haired man an overly cheerful smile.

He only shook his head, likely wondering why he ever left Ame.

Dozens of eyes stared down at me as I entered the classroom the next day. There were more kids there than there had been in years. I was surprised by the size of the other class. It was like no one had dropped out of their class. My own class had shrunk at an almost alarming rate. Of course, they were all cowards anyways.

Maybe the other class was made of stronger stuff?

It didn't really matter to me either way. I just continued ignoring the wide, staring eyes of children who still feared me even though I had never attacked any of them. Retaliate? Yes. Start the conflict? Not physically. All I could say was that people needed to learn how to take insults. I just wanted a little banter. Was that so much to ask?

I took my seat and waited for Machiko to come back from the washroom. I spent the time searching the new faces in the room.

Temari had finally joined us, now seated beside Kankuro, leaning away from Gaara. I avoided eye contact with him, knowing he'd take it as an opportunity to try and approach me. It was bad enough there was sand trailing over my sandals and on my toes. That, and his eyes hadn't left me since I'd entered the room. I knew if I looked into them, I'd only see madness.

The Gaara I knew as a child had been lost to Shukaku.

Many of the new kids were still staring at me, some in pure, undeniable terror, and others wearing what they probably thought were intimidating expressions as they glared. They thought they could take me on?

Eh...some of them probably could.

I didn't think for a second I was all powerful. It was one thing to fight a handful of civilian drunks, and another to fight a fellow trained death machine.

My eyes shifted from one pair to the next, looking from one kid to the next. Some could only look me in the eye before they quickly turned their heads away, too scared to stay locked on. Not many stood out. One boy looked me in the eye with unwavering arrogance. I scoffed and moved on, letting the blonde know he wasn't worth my time.

My eyes locked with the next boy. His reaction was the...oddest.

He winked an olive green eye and a cocky smirk rested on his face.

My lips twitched into a disgusted snarl.

His smirk only grew as he kept making eye contact with me. I refused to back down and glared right back.

And then I flipped him off.

And he decided the appropriate reaction was to blow a kiss.

Yup. That's right folks!

A fucking KISS!

What a freak.

I was thankful for when the arrogant blond boy beside him smacked him over the head with enough force to make the raven haired boy lose eye contact as his hands shot out to stop his head from colliding with the desk.

"What the fuck, bro? Do you know who the fuck that bitch is?!"

"Oh, yes. I'm quite aware of who that little goddess is." He looked back towards me.

I shuddered, even though he hadn't said it in a creepy way or anything. If I'd been anyone else, I'd probably feel pretty fucking flattered. But I wasn't. I was Aisako. And any guy who showed interest in me was clearly fucking bat-shit crazy.

Like, who the fuck in their right mind would wink at me!?

I moved on from the weirdo, making a mental note to avoid him. He was fucking nuts, and that really wasn't my type.

Most of the time.

I was more into red heads anyways.

Like me. I love me. I'm fucking gorgeous, thank you very much.

Machiko came bounding into the room and up the steps without pause to settle in beside me, leaning against me.

She wasn't the only one entering the room. We were still a bit early, so there were still groups of people arriving. There were a lot more graduates here in Suna than there were in Konoha, and I wondered how many teams would survive. Oh well. They weren't my problem.

My eye snapped to the doorway as a pair of familiar girls walked in.

So. The twins had taken the exams a year early, eh?

Interesting.

They hadn't mentioned that the last time we ran into each other.

While the 'twins' and I had never been particularly close, we still talked every once in a while, and the twins would occasionally join Machiko and I in training. Even their mothers got used to me. They offered polite smiles and sometimes asked how I was doing, or how Saki was doing.

We weren't friends, but we got along well enough.

The twins approached our desk and offered a polite greeting before taking a seat beside Machiko, the four of us slightly squishing together to fit.

"Good morning Aisako-san, Machiko-san." The pair said in unison. They had changed over the years, Ren letting her hair stay long and braiding it into a single braid that reached her hips, while Rina cut her hair to a length just above her shoulders. They both had scars dotting their skin from training, and they had gained lithe muscles. They were both shorter than average, but Ren was taller than Rina by an inch or two. Despite the changes, they could still pass as twin sisters.

I suspected they had the same father, since neither of them had one in their lives...and the similarities between them were...eerie.

"Morning, Ren-san, Rina-san." We greeted in return, grinning at our own synchronized response. The twins gave their own smile.

We passed the time with light conversation until Carl-sensei finally made an appearance, carrying a thick-ass pile of manila folders.

"ALRIGHT YOU ANNOYING LITTLE BASTARDS!" Carl-sensei hollered over the din of everyone gathered in the room. Immediately, everyone shut up. You could hear a pin drop.

"Today is the last day I have to put up with you, so be glad." Carl-sensei said with a grin, "I'll be calling your name, and placing you on a team with two others. Afterwards, you're free to talk until your teachers show up. And once they take you away, I never want to see any of you brats again, got it?"

"Sure thing, Carl-sensei!" I called from the back of the room, cackling as he threw a kunai.

"Her laugh is beautiful..." I heard the weirdo whisper, and I instantly stopped laughing. Was I the only one who thought he was nuts? His sense of beauty must be reeeeeeeaaaaaaalllly messed up.

My laugh was the stuff of nightmares, my good sir.

"As I was saying! When I call your name, you'll go sit with your new team mates. Don't complain about who you get paired up with, because I have no say in the matter. If you want to complain, i dare you to go bitch to the Kazekage. It'll be fun to see you get thrown out. If you happen to be teamed up with someone you really hate, then I suggest you get over it and make amends, otherwise you'll likely get yourselves killed in the future." Carl told us, and I could see something in him shift as he continued, "From today on, you'll be shinobi of Suna. I won't tell you to be proud of yourselves, or go on about how great an honour this is, because you know it isn't. Our village is on the brink of collapse, and if any of you want to survive to see the next generation, then I suggest you work hard on your missions and train harder than you ever have before every single day from here on, because it's up to you little shits to make our village strong again."

Wow.

Go Carl.

I didn't fight the grin that appeared on my face. I was used to Taiki's rants, but I had to say, I liked Carl's style. Totally pessimistic but still inspiring. Nice.

"Alright, let's begin."

It wasn't until four other teams were called that I heard a name I knew. The team numbers were ridiculously high, but I think we shared the numbers with other years, and since they were pushing more and more graduates through, it sort of made sense.

"Team 36 is: Ren Kikotsu, Rina Tanryoku" Rina and Ren pumped their fists, "and Akihiko Kuragari."

Oh man...

So, Ren and Rina even had matching family names, meaning 'grit', which had to be a pun about sand...and their teammates name was a thing of beauty, with a name meaning 'shining prince'...and a surname that translated to 'gloom'.

What the fuck were his parents thinking?

And then, Akihiko stood up.

And I lost it. I just couldn't stop laughing when I saw it was the arrogant blond guy who'd smacked the raven-haired weirdo. Oh, that was beautiful.

He glared at me hatefully as he approached to introduce himself to the twins. After introductions were made, the twins said goodbye and left with him to sit near the front of the room, where there was now a vacant desk. Ren and Rina gave us a look from behind his back, bringing their hands to their mouths like they were covering giggles. See? Even the girls with matching surnames thought his name was stupid.

"Next is Team 44."

Everyone froze. That was not a good number. That was worse than being put on Team 7 in Konoha.

"The members will be Subaku no Gaara,"

Oh...WHO THE HELL would put the Kazekage's children in a team with that number?! Well. Okay. Yeah. The Kazekage. But still. That was just cruel. I could understand him wanting Gaara to have bad luck, but because Temari and Kankuro were on Gaara's team, that meant he was giving them bad luck too-

"Machiko,"

What?

"WHAT!?" Machiko screeched angrily, but not too loudly. She hated Gaara.

But that wasn't the only problem.

Gaara was supposed to be put on a team with his brother and sister. Not my minion. I needed her alive, thank you very much. It didn't make any sense. Gaara was supposed to be on the same team as his siblings for some stupid reason, like him not wanting to hurt them...or them being able to calm him down, or something like that, right? So why the hell did they put Machiko with him!? They hated each other! She'd only set him off.

"Quiet, Machiko." Carl-sensei called without looking up from the paper in front of him, "And the third member is- oh you're fucking kidding me."

He looked up and locked eyes with me. My gut dropped and my heart stopped beating for a long moment.

"You're fucking kidding me, right?" I asked, repeating what he'd said, trying not to panic. My heart started again, and began racing. My chakra began to flare and I desperately tried to calm it down, using all my will power.

"No. Sorry kid. The third member of Team 44 is Aisako Shimizu...you're teacher will be meeting with you the moment the other teams have been organized."

"Shit. I wanted her on my team."

Freak.

Even I didn't want to be on my team.

I had Gaara on it.

"Team 45 will be Subaku no Temari and Kankuro, and Shigeru Shinkiro."

"So close!" The raven-haired boy moaned before he got up and made his way to join Temari and Kankuro with a pout clear on his face.

Mad teal eyes stared into mine from across the room, staring so intensely I wanted nothing more than to look away. Even in the room full of people, I could still hear the scrape of his sandals and the whisper of his sand shifting as he stood and made his way towards Machiko and I.

My chakra was flaring and burning in my veins, reminding me of that burning you feel in your stomach when you drink hot soup too quickly. But it was all through out my body.

I'd already forced Machiko to sit at the other end of the desk, as far from me as she could sit at the desk. It wasn't far enough, but she would go no further. So I had to control it.

Being on the same team as him? Gaara? Could I handle something like that? Everyday I'd have to spend time with Gaara. And the demon. Shukaku would be there, whispering things to Gaara all day, and I'd be forced to be there, right in the reach of his sand, so the moment Gaara's control slipped, I'd be dead. I wasn't going to survive this unscathed. Wasn't it bad enough that Shukaku had already claimed my leg?

Did they want him to claim my life too-

Oh. Oh.

Yes. They did.

They intended for Gaara to kill me.

That was what this team was meant for. It was so they could kill me off, while still getting some use out of me. Or...maybe they thought I could control him? Enough people saw Gaara and I together when we were little. I was there for him back then. He used to protect me. Maybe they thought I'd be able to calm him down? Maybe it was both. Maybe they just wanted me there to keep Gaara in line, up until the moment he offed me, and then they'd find someone else to take my place.

And Machiko was already a liability. No loyalty to the village. Just me. And I wasn't exactly loyal either.

Great.

We were assigned Team 44 in hopes that the name of the team would ring true. Shi shi. Two deaths.

Now, I just needed to find out which unlucky bastard was our teacher.

Annnnnnnnnd that's it for this chapter. We'll be finding out who the sensei of Team 44 is in the next chapter. Sorry. I'm also sorry that not a great deal of stuff happened in this chapter, but it was more of a transition chapter, and a chance to show some of the things that changed since the childhood days. I'll be getting into a lot more in the next chapter, but since school will be starting up again, i can't really promise when that will be uploaded. Hopefully this will hold you over until then...

Anywho, I introduced a few new characters this chapter. Both are guys because there are an awful lot of female OCs around Ai's age, and no boys, so I made a few. Mostly by accident.

Shigeru...was not planned. Not really. I just had people staring at her and one of them decided to wink at her and...bam? Someone's developed a crush on her? I dunno He just...appeared. And the other one is Akihiko, who will probably be a total pain in the ass as the story progresses. They appear to be friends, despite one having a crush on Ai, and the other wanting her dead. They'll be fun to write, I think.

So, we discovered who Ai's team mates are! I'm sure most of you already knew who they'd be...but I don't think there was ever a chance that anyone else would have the honour of being the Great Aisako-sama's team mates, right?

Also, out of curiosity, what animal does Aisako remind you of? I know Machiko makes me think of a mix between a puppy and a kitten, Saki makes me think of a fox...Taiki a squirrel...but Ai...I dunno.

The poll for chapter 20 is still open on my profile, so if you haven't voted yet, get your asses over their and cast your vote~! The chapter maybe a special, but depending on which chapter wins, you may get some VERY important answers to some VERY big questions...So go vote now~!

Poll Stands at:

Saki's POV - Raising a Monster: 33

Machiko's POV - Not an Eyeball, or Ai-sama: 29

Carl-sensei's POV - Watching the Class Shrink: 22

Takeo's POV - Gaining a Sister Complex: 20

Taiki's POV - Sanities Lifeline: 5

Flashbacks of the test Drive - Shiny Red Cars: 2

A thanks bigger than Machiko's loyalty goes out to: Scorus, Gremlin Jack, magicdownunder, Guest (machikoforch20), NinjaDemonAngel, DannyPhantom619, Kiki's Stories of Awesomeness, bored411, vampireharry the 2, hachinonana, Gemini's Revenge, Magic'sKey, xVentressx, ionashank, Kragh50, the shadow of nature, Luna Latanya, Heaven-water-sister, Guest (Lity), DeathlyIceMaiden, xbox432, Ochiphius, Shalee, Windbear47, hekatt, kylC, Pinkbubble13, akagami hime chan, RimK10, ThePerfectRe, Guest (Trisana), nashmeira, and Guest for leaving reviews~! Love you people.

Demon Eyes now has a total of 367 Reviews, 1146 Followers, 847 Favourites and is listed in 19 Communities~! Thank you so much for your support, and I hope you all continue to do so. There's nothing that lifts my mood quicker than opening my email and finding 30-some-odd messages from Fanfiction telling me you guys have fav'd, followed and reviewed!

Until next chapter, bye~!