After shaking her head a little in confusion, Sakana decided to keep exploring. About five minutes later she passed a bookshop and couldn't resist stepping inside; she had always loved to read. When she entered, a woman with long brown hair and bright green eyes approached her. She was wearing a red top with a black jacket and black shorts. "Hello there, you must be one of the Genin here for the exams," she said pleasantly.

"Yes," Sakana answered, smiling.

"Welcome to my shop! I'm Nagataki Emiko"

"Mizuko Sakana. Nice to meet you, Nagataki-san."

"You as well," Emiko replied. "Is there anything particular you're looking for?"

"No, not really; I was just wandering around. My team and I only arrived today."

"Ah, I see. So you're from the Sand Village?" Emiko asked, sitting down in a nearby chair. Sakana nodded as Emiko gestured to the chair next to her and Sakana took a seat. "How old are you and your teammates?

"Well, Temari is 16 and she's the oldest, Kankuro is 15, Gaara is 13 and I'm 12, but I'm having my birthday soon," she replied.

"Well then, since I may not get the chance to tell you later, happy birthday!" Emiko said, smiling.

Sakana smiled back. "Thank you!"

Emiko studied her for a second then said, "You know, this may sound odd, but you look a lot like one of the Genin here in Konoha. You'll probably see him around; I'm pretty sure his sensei is planning on entering his team in the Chuunin exams, too."

"Really!? I wonder…" Sakana trailed off, thinking hard. Although she had mainly come for the exam, she also had an ulterior motive. Her family was still out there somewhere, she was certain of it! After years of thoroughly searching Suna, she knew no one had lost or abandoned a girl 13 years ago. Could the boy Emiko was talking about be a relative? Was Konoha her birthplace? "I don't suppose you could tell me his name?" Sakana asked.

"Sure! It's Uchiha Sasuke," Emiko replied.

"I'll have to keep an eye out for him then…" Sakana said.

Suddenly she heard Kankuro's voice coming loudly from the other side of a fence across from the shop. She could also hear Temari along with several voices she didn't recognize. Two of them seemed to be girls and the others were boys. "Um, could you excuse me? I think I hear my team getting into trouble; I should probably go stop them," Sakana said, standing.

"Do you need some help?" Emiko asked, looking concerned as she also stood.

"No, I'm sure I'll be fine. Thank you for the chat, Nagataki-san."

"Anytime, Mizuko-san" Emiko said, waving as she left.

Sakana exited the shop and jumped up onto the fence to get a better view. She shook her head as she realized what was going on. Kankuro had a boy who couldn't be any older than six or seven hoisted up in one of his hands. Temari was trying to calm him down but wasn't doing so well. Across from them were the sources of the other voices. There was a girl who seemed about the same age as the boy Kankuro was holding, and another young boy with brown hair and glasses. There was also an older girl about Sakana's age who had long pink hair and clear green eyes, and a boy who had spiky blond hair and bright blue eyes. Both the older girl and boy were wearing leaf headbands. All four of them were obviously friends with the little boy being dangled by Kankuro.

Just as she was about to jump down from the fence, a rock flew from nowhere and hit Kankuro on the hand causing him to drop the boy. She quickly turned towards the nearby tree, where the rock had come from, and saw someone who made her gasp. It was the same boy she had bumped into just a little while ago.

"You're a long way from home and way out of your league," the boy said while tossing another stone up and down in his hand.

"Sasuke-kun!" the pink- haired girl shouted, getting hearts in her eyes.

Sakana inwardly sweat-dropped. "This guy has fan girls?!" she thought to herself. She noticed Temari getting an interested look in her eyes at the sight of the boy. Wait…Sasuke? Was he the one Nagataki-san had been talking about? The boy that supposedly looked like her?

While Kankuro was distracted the little boy ran back to the older blond, who asked, "Are you alright Konohamaru-kun?"

Sakana looked back to Sasuke. He crushed the stone he had previously been tossing and said to her teammates, "Get lost." Sensing the situation could get ugly pretty quickly, she made her move, jumping down next to Temari.

"Hey Sakana-chan, where have you been?" Temari asked.

"I was out walking until I heard Kankuro's big mouth," she said, glaring at the subject of her statement. Kankuro shrugged, unashamed, and she looked away rolling her eyes. Sakana turned to the people standing across from them and said, "I'm sorry about Kankuro, he has anger management issues."

"I have WHAT, Sakana-bozu?" Kankuro yelled at her.

She turned to him and calmly stated, "You need to learn to control your temper." Sakana knew from experience that she'd hit a nerve.

Kankuro was pulling his puppet Crow off of his back, getting ready for a fight, when suddenly a familiar voice said, "Kankuro, back off."

All eyes flashed to the tree and she smiled a small smile when she saw Gaara standing upside-down across the trunk from Sasuke. Judging by Sasuke's face she could tell he hadn't seen or heard Gaara's arrival. "You're an embarrassment to our village," the sand ninja said emotionlessly.

"Hey there… Gaara-san" Kankuro said hesitantly.

"Have you forgotten the reason the four of us came all the way here?" Gaara asked quietly.

Sakana realized that it was best to stay out of this. When Gaara started to get mad it kind of scared her. And this wasn't the first time that Kankuro had acted so afraid of his brother.

"Well, you see…umm… Sakana-" Kankuro started, only to get interrupted by a "Shut up" from Gaara. She could almost see Kankuro shaking.

Gaara turned his head and stared at Sasuke, who stared back almost defiantly. "I'm sorry for any trouble he caused," Gaara said before using his sand to teleport down between Sakana and Temari. "Let's go. Baki-sensei is probably waiting for us already."

Sakana nodded, but looked back up at Sasuke. He really did look a lot like her, except for the eyes.

"Come on, Sakana-chan" Temari said, grabbing her hand.

"Yeah…" she said slowly, turning to follow Gaara.

"Wait up!" a female voice called to her.

Sakana didn't turn around. "What is it?"

"Judging by your headbands you're ninjas from Sunagakure, right?" the girl asked. When met with only silence, she went on. "The Land of Fire and the Land of Wind have an alliance, but a treaty prevents their ninjas from entering each others lands without permission. State your purpose!"

Sakana turned and said, "The answer you're looking for is closer than you think. Haven't you heard the news?" She reached into her side pack and pulled out her ID. "We all have traffic passes; we came to Konoha to take the Chuunin exams."

"Chuunin exams? What are the Chuunin exams?" the blond boy asked.

"You all really must not know," Kankuro said cockily.

"Naruto nii-san, you can advance from a Genin to a Chuunin if you pass the exams," one of the little boys said. Sakana inwardly giggled at the fact that the little kid knew more than a Genin.

"Really? Then I should take it too!" the boy Naruto said.

Gaara started to jump away when suddenly Sasuke jumped down from the tree and said, "Hey you, identify yourself."

"Who? You mean me?" Temari asked, almost hopefully.

"No him, the guy with the gourd on his back," Sasuke said, pointing to Gaara.

Sakana turned to Gaara, wondering how he would react.

"I am Sabaku no Gaara. I'm curious about you as well. Who are you?" Gaara answered coolly.

"Hn…I'm Uchiha Sasuke" the other boy said with a smirk.

So it was him - the one Emiko had mentioned. Sakana looked at the two of them as they stared each other down, almost fiercely, and thought to herself, "Well, it looks like we've found some competition. And maybe I've found a clue to my past…"

Gaara's POV
Gaara was busy glaring at Uchiha when suddenly the annoying voice of the blond boy standing next to him said "Hey, I bet you're dying to know my name." The Suna ninja barely glanced at him and said, "I couldn't care less."

He turned around to leave, but noticed Sakana pause and glance back at Sasuke. For some unknown reason this made him angry, but he kept it down. Temari grabbed Sakana's hand and his team moved off in the direction of the gates.