A/N: This would've been up yesterday, way earlier, and without as much trouble as I'm having posting it. For some reason, even though I managed to log in, the Document Manager won't let me upload it, so I had to copy and paste, and when I did that, it copied and pasted twice. Meaning I, then, had to backspace it. e_o

Chapter Two: Meet This Space

The first time I saw her I thought that it was some sort of fucking prank. She was all trussed up like one of those girls I see giggling at the village market over a discount on jewelry or boys—most of which were so weak I can beat them blind in one eye and high. Well, she probably wasn't half as made-up as they were, but it was the aura she gave off. The naïve innocence of "All is right with the world, and even if it isn't, I'm going to try and change that". That sort of idealistic nonsense that I hate. But then again. It was what they taught in this village—this village with too many trees and little shinobi kids thinking that there was nothing more to being a shinobi than hard-work and good, wholesome determination. This village full of complete bull. At least, in my opinion.

The first time I saw her, I thought that it was some sort of sick joke. I thought she was a slut. She was the epitome of everything I hated. Or thought I hated. She was beautiful and she knew it. But that might be what made her seem like a slut. And she was arrogant—so, so vain and so, so conceited. It was all in that one smart-alecky grin of hers. Guys probably ate out of her hand. Just looking at her made me want to hit her. Pull out some of that pretty hair. But undeniably, unfortunately, she was the kunoichi you would want on your side—from your village, on your team, allied with you. I didn't. It didn't matter how strong or how smart. She wasn't safe and she wasn't good. She was brutal. No compassion, no morals. Nothing. As high and dry as the desert. Suits her, though, huh?

Hana looked up at the sky and licked her lips. "Let's get croquettes." She put her hands in her pockets and spun around, stopping in the middle of the pathway to look at her teammates. "They're fast, and I can take them home. There's a shop close by, isn't there? Right around the corner." She nudged her head toward the left turn, and watched for a reaction from the two boys.

The news that Nojiko had had to tell them had been none other than about the Chunin Exams. And about applying. About them applying. The reactions to this had more or less been predictable, what with Hana and Natsu pumping their fists into the air and spastically dancing jointly, and Yujo having no reaction as his reaction.

Although when Nojiko had, at the end of his explanation, pressed for questions, only Yujo came up with one that hadn't infuriated Nojiko to the point where he cut aforementioned question off before it could be properly asked ("When we're Chunin, do we get a vest like yours?" "Can we order it in a different color?" "Can we not have one, since they're kind of ugly?").

Yujo had asked if you could individually register, or if it was a team thing.

It was, apparently, a team thing.

Yujo's tongue had then proceeded to attack his lip ring. Hana had surmised that Yujo was probably sulky inside because he had to be stuck with his teammates who were oh so less talented than he was, and therefore, would have his kickass-ness (not that she admitted he was anywhere near kickass) hindered by their untalented-ness during the exams.

"Dude, I'm starving." Natsu sighed tragically and looked to the sky. "I'm going to die."

Hana looked at him waspishly. "No, you really aren't. It's about ten more paces, so if you die now, it won't be as tragic as it'll be ironic. Like, really."

"You're so mean to me."

"I am not mean."

"You are so mean."

"I am not mean—"

Yujo interjected with, "I'm hungry."

They had somehow parked at the side of the path. Hana looked at Yujo and then shared a glance of pure camaraderie with Natsu. Simultaneously, in perfect execution, the two said in sarcastic shock, "Oh my God. He speaks." Yujo merely continued to look bored. And silent. Because only Nakamori Yujo could look silent. Hana had long since learned it was an art in itself.

And that there were a lot of things only Nakamori Yujo seemed to be able to do, because most of the things normal humans did seemed to be below the standards of Nakamori Yujo. Speaking when spoken to was apparently one of them. Or maybe just speaking in general.

"C'mon then," Hana jumped in the air a few times to get the doom-and-gloom-ness of Yujo out of her system. It really was unhealthy to be in such proximity with him. She might get depressed. She spoke to Natsu, "He's already semi-anorexic. The Nakamori will hound us if he goes all the way."

Natsu just grinned.

Yujo just looked silent.

"I don't want to go out." Himawari folded her arms, and tilted her chin up, nose in the air defiantly. "I'm tired from running, and those goddamn three days we were out all the time. We had to sleep out. And now you two want to go out?"

Her older siblings glared down at her with twice the defiance. In Himawari's opinion, twice the stupidity. She'd always hated the outdoors—one stipulation against her in the shinobi career—but she could put it aside long enough to get through traveling and missions. (Though even for that, she preferred espionage and document retrieval.) And even though Temari and Kankuro knew—they knew—exactly how much she hated all plants except for cacti and all bugs with no exceptions at all, as soon as they'd reached the quarters reserved for them during these exams, they still insisted on going out.

And they also knew that wherever they went, Himawari's team would have to go, too. Because Gaara would inevitably find something of interest and follow the two oldest siblings, if not purely to spite and scare them in one way, or another.

"We know you don't want to go," Temari said, one hand on her hip, and the other holding up her fan. "But we do. It's Konoha, and we just want a look, all right? It's your job to follow us, not our job to stay where you can see us."

Himawari's eyes narrowed. She could see the outlines of Hien and Rikachi kneeling in position outside the screen door, waiting for the ultimate decision to be made after the siblings' battle. It was two against one, but Himawari knew that her older sister and brother knew that she was more than enough to make up for numbers.

And she could feel Gaara lurking somewhere close, too. As to where had yet to be found.

"Stop be so selfish, yeah li'l sis?" Kankuro heaved a cynical sort of sigh.

"Don't 'yeah' me." With that tone, Himawari would have to admit that her juvenility was seeping out through the cracks. But when frustrated, her hold on how things flew from her mouth wasn't always the tightest.

Kankuro raised a painted eyebrow. "Well, you always 'yeah' everyone else. Can't your big brother take a page out of your book?"

"No," and for a moment Himawari was deathly afraid at how small her voice came out when beside his dropping timbre. The single year between their ages had seemed so much more insignificant before his voice had begun to break and he'd started to shoot up. "I want to sleep, and that's final."

"For the life of you," Temari hissed, "can't you just once think about how much we don't want to deal with you every time we want to leave a building?"

Ah. Now Himawari was returning to her element. "Don't quite feel like it. It's not like I ever wanted to stalk you anyway. You two could at least do something exciting once in a while."

When Temari's teeth began to chafe against each other, Kankuro sighed another sigh and stepped to her. One step. Two steps. "Listen here," he looked closely at her, "Konoha's full to the brimming with pussyfooted genin. If we find someone to beat around, you can have the rest. Baki won't know from us. Deal?"

Temari looked alarmed. "Kankuro—"

Himawari narrowed her eyes again. Shot a glare at her sister. She'd always hated Temari the most. Maybe it was because they were both girls. Maybe because Kankuro at least understood the want that kept her getting into street fights. "Fine. Deal. An hour around the village at the most, okay? And just walking."

"Yeah, yeah," Kankuro rolled his eyes, and padded his hand through her hair. She slapped it away.

Human contact from her siblings never failed to bring her Look at me wrong, and you'll never look at anything again levels up another five notches. Himawari turned to the screen door, noticing that Hien's silhouette had already stood up. "You two can fucking get in here now. Like you weren't eavesdropping already."

Hien was the first one in—shocker. Within two seconds, his arm had gone around Himawari's waist, and her elbow had gone into his crotch. At her height and considering his, it was easier to aim low then aim high. A blow to the balls was more painful and easier to reach than a blow to the stomach or face.

"Babe," he whined, wincing. "That's not a nice thing to do. What if you do irreparable damage? Then we can't make beautiful babies till dawn!"

Himawari stepped to the side and winced right back. "You're a psycho. Maybe if you stopped talking like that I'd let you make-out with me. Maybe. Probably not. But it's better than nothing."

Rikachi walked in and breezily took a fistful of Hien's hair and tugged. Hard. "Play nice, kiddies."

"Ow. Ow, ow, ow." Hien scowled at him. "I hate you so much. Faggot."

"I love you, too, cousin dearest."

Himawari wrinkled her nose. Looked to her siblings. "Well. Get going then, yeah? We'll catch up with you in a bit. Let me at least fix my hair. It looks like shit, and I don't even get to shower, thanks to you."

Hien perked up from his self-imposed sulk. "Shower?"

Rikachi kicked him in the shin. "Up yours, Casanova."

She watched Temari and Kankuro leave without another word to her—without another glance to her or her teammates. Yeah. She was the heartless one. Himawari knelt beside Hien—he'd curled into a ball in the corner, glaring rather fiercely at Rikachi. "Poor baby." She stroked her fingers through his hair.

He dared to glance up at her with glittering eyes.

She felt a hand on her thigh.

Hair-stroking turned into a slap. "Get up," she said sweetly. "Didn't you hear darling sissy and darling older brother? We're going out."

Rikachi kissed her lips as she passed him on the way to the door. "What exactly are we doing again?"

"Sightseeing." She grinned.

They never did get to eat. Apparently, Hana had second-guessed wrongly about Yujo's semi-anorexia. In all honesty, she and Natsu had been joking. Sort of. But before they could turn that one glorious corner, Yujo had pulled up into a tree.

And it was a learned art that when Yujo had something truly important to do and wanted his teammates to follow, he usually said nothing at all. It was the insignificant things like 'I'm hungry' that he took care enough to voice. So disappearing randomly was something that Hana and Natsu had methodized as something to watch out for. And to gauge at a moment's notice.

But really, they were too hungry to do much of anything except cave to their tried and true methods in dealing with Yujo at the moment. Which was why they were both currently holed up in a tree, kneeling on branches, watching whatever Yujo had deigned so entertaining as to forego lunch.

From the looks, it was nothing more than Naruto and Sakura—Konoha's parody of Bonnie and Clyde—doing what they did best now that they were on the same team: Everything that anyone with an ounce of dignity wouldn't. And then waiting for Uchiha The Emo Sasuke to save them. Though, Hana supposed it wasn't as much Sakura's fault as it was Naruto's. Natsu was nearly the same, but she hadn't went so low as to decrease the little dignity she had left. (Not that she'd ever had much, dejected as the thought is.)

"Dude," Natsu whispered, "That blond girl down there is kind of hot."

"Dude," Hana replied sarcastically, "They're all about to get pummeled. The red-haired guy is kind of freaking me out though. He's standing upside down in a tree."

"Well. We're kneeling in a tree."

"Bit more normal than upside down, I think."

"But who likes normal, yeah?"

Yujo and Natsu found themselves staring into a pair of violet eyes. Each. One pair wicked and one pair calculating.

Hana found herself looking at a pair of teal eyes. Volatile eyes.

"Huh." The eyes glittered. "Hi there, girlie."

A/N:

Himawarixxsandz: Yeah, so sorry this chapter is short, but I couldn't lump it in with anything else. And you don't really find out about anything in this chapter except for the fact that when I went over it with NTspaz, she not only told me she didn't know who Casanova was, but who Bonnie and Clyde were, too. The next chapter will be better. I promise. Hopefully. I'm at NTspaz's house right now as we write this and she's being retarded as always. So, before she accidentally kills herself, I'll let her stop playing the effing guitar and start telling you how much of a freak she is.

NTspaz: quoting Natsu, "You're so mean." and i DO know who Casanova is... just not Bonnie & Clyde. Don't hurt me... Anyways, well, uhh... First order of business: ahah, Yujo! He's not so much so semi-anorexic... why not, fully? Lawlzah, jk jk. As for Hien, again, he's a freak, just a freak... -_- So, uh, dudes! Keep on reading, just keep reading, reading, reading. And i'll shut up before you peeps aim flame throwers at me. Lawlz