AN: Yay, update. I'm working on the second arc of this, and I'll tell ya- it's getting good! ^_^ Wait until you see the plot twist at the end of this story...

I'm starting to take my liberties with Ryuuichi and Kazeki, who frankly were too much like Sasuke and Naruto the way my buddies had it planned. Here's to killing Sue-ism everywhere...

The dank halls which concealed a lavatory disappeared; the ground, the world dripped like molasses at Kazeki's feet as he stared. It was all he could do, even before breathing. It had to be a mistake. His mind flashed back to training sessions of old, Saturdays spent reading dirty manga- Ryuuichi. Yoshida. Ryuuichi, who killed Izanagi Minami, who bought Kazeki lunch when he forgot his money, who had hung before him like a dangling carrot, unreachable and yet so close…

But the look-alike had disappeared by the time Kazeki was able to call up a reliable image of his old companion.

The declarations were made for the Final Stage, and Kazeki was too shocked to even be fearful that he would have to face the Kinuta Dosu whom he had watched bring Akimichi Chouji to his knees.

Because Suzuki was going up against the mysterious teen who looked so much like the boy who had been able to kill a Jonin with hardly any effort. He had to find her once they dismissed- where was she, anyway?

Two days after her injury, Kayoko woke up, groggy, in the starlit dark of a hospital room. She felt prickly and done sleeping, even though it was the middle of the night, and her head ached. She knew Hirako would be there, and ordered him to get her a glass of water for her papery throat.

Gaara just laughed, and waited for her to realize that he wasn't anyone she'd want to know.

"Kawa ga, umi he nagarete, toki ga-"

Gai was trying to remember this little song, from the shreds of a memory he had of his own mother; comforting, he needed to be comforting, if Lee was awake. If Lee ever woke up. In his darkest heart, that made Gai want to scream at himself, he almost wished that Lee wouldn't. That pain would be more endurable than having to watch the student he loved bash like a crippled bird against a now-concaved glass ceiling.

He knew it was the best care in the village; he knew that Lee was the best, the brightest and the most adorable, but it didn't make walking into the hospital room any easier. Unable to face him, Gai had strolled all along the footpaths of Konoha until sunrise. Visiting hours had just begun by the time he found Lee's room, in the Intensive Care unit. The stench of linoleum and blood made him want to vomit; he hated hospitals, and resented from his core the imprisonment it represented. This would be his home from now on, even if he rose again.

But coming to the knowledge that he would give anything to save this boy, Gai felt bolstered enough to see him, no matter what condition either of them were in. His heart throbbed in expectation, but in his mind Gai had already decided that nothing would shock him. Together, they could endure all.

But he was shocked, in fact- when he walked in, Lee's scattering of black hair against the sharply-off white hospital bedding contrasted even deeper the dark purple head of a young girl, who had fallen asleep in a visitor's chair to the comforting chant of the breathing machine.

She bolted wide-awake, gray eyes startled, when the window a room on a lower floor exploded open.

"How could this have happened?" Hirako fairly shouted, though his very thoughts had been tempered by exposure to Kabuto. The nurse looked nonplussed, more annoyed than anything.

"Please calm down." snapped the girl, who's upside-down nametag read 'Katoh'. It was annoying the crap out of him. "We'll send a few Chunin out to look for her, but even if she was kidnapped, there isn't-"

"Look, 'Hotak'!" Hirako bit off the end of her sentence. "That Sand creep was in here, and now she's gone- even someone with your brain capacity must see some connection!"
"Being rude doesn't help her, you little shit." the woman replied, at the end of her rope. "And if you think it was one of the competitors, you're out of luck anyway." she added smartly. "The Hokage won't penalize another country's Shinobi what with all the Kages and daimyos around now. I'll see who can see to this… For now, get lost."

Left in the pale-blue hallway, Hirako stomped outside the building before letting loose all of his wrath upon a beautiful pear sapling that he encountered, thankfully, before a person.

In socked feet, Tenten quietly bustled to the small counter of her family's kitchen; she lived here alone with her father, who had been absent for much of her life until her mother's death. They got along with a minimum of communication, and Tenten secretly respected him not at all.

Dumping a half a bag of frozen dango into the roiling rice cooker, she bemoaned having to prepare her own lunch; it sure would be nice to have a cozy, informative mother to have snacks cooked up when she came home from the Exams… She was skipping training today, which probably meant that Gai would be pounding down the door within hours. But it mattered not; it was a mental health day, and very much deserved after that horrid trial. She did so hate to be alone, though.

Spooning strawberry Ovaltine into a glass of milk, she let her eyes set upon the soft corner of the kitchen window and thought about her new crush. She hadn't intended to get so caught up in a random encounter, and it made her want to kick herself in the head- but she gave over to the bubbliness of it, and melted into love-sung giggles. She hadn't meant someone so charming since… well…

"Hi."

"Hi."

"What's a girl like you doing in an Academy like this?"

"Ha-ha! Where did you come from, you weirdo?"

"Same place as you- sperm meets egg." he said, grinning provocatively for a twelve year-old. "I got moved up to this class."

"What ARE you talking about… oh, nevermind. So do you need a pencil or something? What do you want?"

"Maybe I need some one to cheat off of- or maybe I just like you a lot."

It was no longer a somber, kindergarten memory; for the first time in a while, Tenten felt edified. Admirable. Something she hadn't been since her childhood love had disappeared on that day.

When the rapping came at the door, she was still ambling in dreams; the look in Kazeki's eyes, as he stood behind the dead bolted door, failed to touch her as it should have. Everything did, until his lips formed the words.

"Ryuuichi is back."

Birds screamed, wind chimes tinkled; the moment suddenly seemed embroidered, heavy and cloyingly scented, as these words digested into her mind. She grasped the doorframe and stared at half of Kazeki's face.

"Come again?"

"Ryuuichi was in the Chunin exams." Kazeki repeated, with ferocious concentration and a bit of disdain. "I saw him. I know it was him. And now Suzuki's scheduled to fight him. You knew Ryuuichi probably better than I did. What should we do?"

"… We shouldn't tell anyone."

"Tenten-"

"He's dead! He wouldn't have left me here, otherwise!" she shrilled, grasping the broad sleeve of her robe until her fingernails turned blood red. "You must be on something, Kazeki. Don't mess with my head like that, Kazeki!"

"Tenten. It was him. I'm as sure as anything." Kazeki repeated, pressing his face close to the wood. "He's alive, and he's here, for some reason. He left on pretty bad terms with Konoha, and I doubt his intentions are any better than they were then. We have to do something."

"What are you talking about!?" Tenten rasped, her mind racing.

"… Tenten, Ryuuichi killed our sensei, and then he disappeared. I know I told you differently, but believe me. I saw it, but I never saw Ryuuichi die. He just disappeared with this one missing-nin."

Kazeki gulped loudly, and refocused his gaze directly into her fearful eyes.

"Should we tell the Hokage?"

"No." Tenten immediately replied. "We need to wait. You could be wrong, and then the Hokage would never forgive us. We need proof… Oh, Jesus. This is so insane."

"No, he is." Kazeki stated. "And he's only gotten crazier and crazier since we saw him, I'd guess. He goes by Kurosaki Taro, now. Help me find him."

Tenten said she would, and lay on the doormat for a long time after she closed the door. The dango burned, inedible.

The song Gai was trying to remember translates to something like this:

Rivers run to meet the sea; time walks on with aching feet

the sun will hide it's face in fear, but you'll be safe while I am here…

Suzuki and cold, dead Shuchun knew it too; they probably would have wept to hear it, like a voice from afar: the voices of their dead parents, from the river.

Because the world really was so fearful when they weren't there.