Sasuke resisted the urge to sigh as he glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall of the empty classroom. Night had fallen several hours ago, and he was getting bored and hungry, but Kurenai had asked—in that tone she used which indicated her 'request' was nothing of the sort—him to meet with someone here to discuss the offer Orochimaru had made to him during the second trial of the exams. He still wasn't entirely sure why he had even mentioned it to her; she might be his jounin-sensei, but this was a private matter, he thought.

Perhaps it was the fact that, unlike the vast majority of the other teachers, tutors, and guardians he had had since that day, she didn't pity him. He didn't want anyone's pity, and Kurenai seemed to understand that. Perhaps the reason was simply that he had actually started to believe her when she said that as a jounin and the team leader, Sasuke and his teammates were her absolute top priority. He doubted he would ever fully trust her, or anyone else, but for the moment he had no reason to think she might not mean what she said.

On the contrary, ever since the second trial, she had been working with him to explore the possibilities of using his sharingan in conjunction with genjutsu, sometimes to startlingly impressive effect. Sasuke had had no idea genjutsu could be so powerful—even lethal, if used properly—and while he doubted he would ever reach Kurenai's level of mastery, he could easily see the advantages of learning from her. The Uchiha had traditionally focused on ninjutsu and taijutsu, and if she could help him discover how to apply the sharingan's strengths to the relatively unexplored area of genjutsu, that might be exactly the advantage he would need in order to kill his brother.

He had to admit, though, that Orochimaru's offer intrigued him in a way. The Snake Sannin, like his former teammates, was legendary in his skills and accomplishments, and Sasuke had no doubt that the missing-nin could make good on his offer of training. Unlike the other two sannin, however, Orochimaru's darker side was of equally legendary scope; Tsunade's gambling habits and Jiraiya's perversion might be infamous, but they were nothing compared to the cruel experiments the Snake Sannin had performed on enemy captives and Leaf citizens alike. Yes, Orochimaru could make him powerful, but he wondered about the price he would have to pay for that power, in the end.

If it lets me kill him, though, it might be worth it, Sasuke thought, before being interrupted by the sound of the door opening. He vaguely recognized the chakra signature of whoever had entered, but when he turned around, he found himself taken aback.

"What are you doing here, Haruno?" he asked, frowning at the pink-haired girl standing in the doorway. While he had to admit—even if only to himself—that her actions in the forest had somewhat impressed him, he had no idea why Kurenai would have asked him to meet her now; she had nothing to do with Orochimaru, at least that he knew of.

Sakura frowned back at him, shrugging as she stepped into the room and sat down at one of the empty desks. "If I knew, I would tell you," she said, sounding tired. "Jiraiya-sama told me to come here after practice today, but I don't know why. Trust me, I'd much rather be back at my apartment getting something to eat."

"Good, you're both here. Let's get this over with, since I don't think any of us want to think about this stuff any longer than we have to."

Sasuke whirled around at the sound of another female voice, this one coming from behind him—and unlike when Sakura had entered the room, he couldn't sense her presence at all. His hand was already dropping down to his kunai holster before he aborted the motion, recognizing the jounin who had introduced herself as the examiner for the second part of the chuunin exams. That, at least, explained the lack of chakra signature; Kurenai had taught him and his teammates the genjutsu used to conceal one's chakra, and though none of them were able to leave it active for more than a minute or two at a time, it made sense that a jounin wouldn't have that problem.

"Let me guess," the woman said, smirking at Sasuke's reaction. "Nobody bothered to tell you—" she pointed at him— "who you'd be meeting, did they? Can't say I blame them.

"And you," she continued, this time pointing at Sakura, who was looking at her with a puzzled expression on her face. "That old pervert probably didn't even tell you why you're here, did he? If the Hokage himself hadn't told me, I'm not sure I would've believed anyone would be crazy enough to teach—well, never mind. It's not like there aren't plenty of people who wonder how the Fourth could have been crazy enough to let me stay a ninja after what I did, so I guess we've got something in common."

Sasuke frowned, having no idea what to make of that comment. He—along with everyone else his age—knew that there was something different about Haruno Sakura, and it seemed as though this jounin knew what that was, but her words shed no light on the situation at all. Fortunately for him, he didn't really care about his fellow genin's secret, whatever it was, so he shrugged and dismissed the thought. He had to admit, though, that the stunned expression on her face was somewhat amusing.

"So…then…but—" Sakura stopped and visibly regathered her composure before speaking again. "Why am I here, then, Mitarashi-san?" she asked. "If it's because of something the Hokage told you…is it because of how I've been studying fuuinjutsu?"

The jounin—Sasuke remembered her name, now, thanks to Sakura; Mitarashi Anko—nodded. "Yep," she said. "Apparently your new teacher wants to find out how good you are before he shows you anything, and the Hokage thought this would be the perfect opportunity."

Anko's smile, which already seemed somewhat forced to Sasuke, slipped complete for a moment following her words. She tossed a bundle of yellowing papers down on one of the desks, then wiped her hands against the fabric of her utility vest as though she had just let go of something dirty.

"You can start looking through those notes, while I tell a story to the Uchiha," she said, her mouth twisting into a bitter grimace. "If you're as good as the Hokage says, it shouldn't take you too long to figure them out." Grabbing Sasuke's arm, she led him over to the other side of the classroom.

"Sit," she ordered, and, though he was growing more and more annoyed with the woman's peremptory behavior, Sasuke found himself obeying. Something in the way she carried herself, as though she was being forced to revisit the site of an old injury, caused him to defer to her for the moment.

Anko paced restlessly back and forth for a moment before finally settling on the desk opposite to Sasuke's and fixing him with a curious stare. "So my old master wants you to join him, huh?" she asked, after a short, unsettling period of silence. "I'm not surprised, I guess. He always was interested in those sharingan eyes, and you're just about his only chance of getting some to study, now."

"What?" Sasuke blurted out, causing Sakura to look up from her work, even though they were on opposite ends of the room. "Orochimaru is your old—wait, how do I know you're not working for him right now?" he demanded, letting his chakra fill him as he tensed his muscles.

"Don't be stupid, kid," Anko replied, though beneath the disgust in her voice, he thought she sounded disappointed and even a little hurt by his accusation. "First of all, you may be some sort of genius for your age, but you are only a genin. If I wanted to do anything to you, I'd have done it already. Second, you don't think we're alone, do you? Jiraiya is watching everything that's going on in this room right now, and the Hokage probably is too.

"Now, shut up and listen. I'm doing this as a favor to the Hokage and your jounin-sensei, but I'm not going to sit here and let you make smart-ass comments on things you don't know anything about. Got it?"

Sasuke winced. She was very obviously annoyed with him, to the point where he could feel it in her chakra signature, which she was not making any attempt to hide any more. No matter how much he might bristle internally at the way she was treating him, he found himself not wanting to push her self-control too much further, especially if she was telling the truth about being Orochimaru's apprentice—or, he supposed, ex-apprentice. Grudgingly, he swallowed his pride and nodded to her, settling back into his seat.

"Wonderful," she said scornfully, though the threatening aura surrounding her faded somewhat as she began to speak again. "Now, our story begins back when a little girl had just passed her tests to become a genin, several years ahead of the rest of her age group. She showed a great deal of promise, and so she was offered a special chance: to study directly under one of the legendary sannin—and not just any sannin, but the one everyone thought would become the next Hokage of the Leaf.

"The sannin taught his new apprentice many things during the next few years—powerful summoning techniques, advanced taijutsu, and many other techniques, some of which were forbidden. The girl never questioned her master or wondered if it was right for her to be learning some of the things he taught her, even though she should have known that some of them were forbidden for a reason. After a while, the sannin began to have her help him with his research, but still, despite the things she found herself doing for him, she never disobeyed him. The Leaf were at war, he told her, and so any methods were justified when it came to learning how to stop the enemy."

Sasuke was far from stupid; obviously, the sannin was Orochimaru and the girl had grown up to become the woman sitting in front of him. Despite that transparency, though, he found himself becoming caught up in her tale, and when she paused, he realized he was actually leaning forward in his eagerness to hear more. Disgusted by such a blatant show of emotion, he snorted to himself and slouched back in his seat, though the flash of amusement that played across Anko's face showed that he hadn't managed to fool her.

"Orochimaru—because I'm sure by now you've guessed who the sannin is," she continued, smiling mirthlessly, "had no intention of sharing the results of his research with anyone, of course, let alone the village leaders, but his student was so caught up in her admiration for him that she believed every word he said. He continued his experiments, which grew more and more elaborate as time passed, and one day, he came to her and told her that he had made a fantastic discovery.

"It was a seal, which could be tattooed on a ninja in order to increase his or her abilities beyond human limitations. He wanted his student, who had done so much to help him, to be the first to enjoy the benefits of their hard work. Such a kind teacher, don't you think?"

The bitterness and loathing in her voice and chakra aura were nearly thick enough to choke on, and Sasuke realized he had begun to unconsciously edge away from her. Whatever Orochimaru had done to her, she had very obviously never forgiven him for it, and he was reminded of his own hatred for his brother. Just as he was about to ask what had happened with the seal, though, they were interrupted by a loud, almost frightened cry from Sakura, who had stood up and was regarding the papers Anko had given her with a horrified expression.

"Well, that was fast," Anko muttered. "I'll let Pinkie tell you all about that wonderful seal Orochimaru developed, then." Unconsciously, her left hand crept up to rub her right shoulder, and she shuddered slightly. Sasuke noted that she didn't seem at all surprised by the vehemence of his fellow genin's reaction to whatever she had discovered.

"Mitarashi-san, is this—did Orochimaru actually use this on you?" Sakura asked as Sasuke and Anko walked over to stand next to her. Her eyes were wide, and she had a curious look of sympathy on her face, which Sasuke didn't even want to try to guess at the reasons for. He was already getting the impression, though, that this seal—whatever it did—was something to stay far away from.

Anko frowned. "Yeah," she admitted, rubbing her shoulder again. She snatched her hand away when she realized what she was doing, then, with a clear show of reluctance on her face, pulled aside the fabric of her utility vest to reveal a dark splotch tattooed near the junction of her neck and shoulder.

"There it is," she said. "One Cursed Seal of Heaven…aren't I lucky? I can't use it, at least, which—well, it's definitely a good thing, even if I didn't think so at the time." She rearranged her clothing to hide the seal once more before turning back to Sakura, who seemed relieved by her words.

"I guess you were able to figure out what the seal's true purpose is, huh?" she asked, then gestured to Sasuke. "Tell him. I don't need to hear it, though; I've heard it all already, more times than I want to."

With that, she turned and walked away, settling down into the instructor's chair at the front of the room. "You'd better listen to her too, brat!" she called out, before pointedly turning her back on the two genin.

Sasuke fumed for a moment at her rude dismissal, then, a frown etched onto his face, looked at Sakura. After Anko's story, he had all but decided that accepting any help from Orochimaru would be the height of stupidity, but he found himself morbidly curious as to what this seal did that was so awful. He knew almost nothing about those kinds of techniques, yet if they could produce such a strong reaction from a seasoned jounin, perhaps he should learn more about them.

"Well?" he demanded, after several seconds had passed and Sakura remained silent. "Are you going to tell me whatever it is you're supposed to?"

Sakura gave a startled noise as she appeared to remember she was not alone in the room. "Oh!" she said, shaking her head. "I guess, if you really want to know. You probably don't, though."

"Just tell me," Sasuke said, glowering at her. He was beginning to get annoyed at how skittish she was acting; she had never impressed him all that much as a fighter, but after the way she had saved one of the other genin in the forest, he had at least begun to respect her courage, and he couldn't see why a simple seal would upset her so much.

"Right." Sakura's expression grew firmer, and she picked up one of the pieces of paper and held it out to him. "Orochimaru's seal is actually two seals in one. The first seal just acts as…I guess you could call it a chakra battery. It siphons chakra from your coils and stores it inside itself. Then, if you're in a fight, you can tap the seal for the stored chakra, which has obvious uses."

Sasuke nodded. The scribblings on the paper she was holding meant nothing to him, but the assurance in her voice convinced him that she knew what she was talking about. Still, he didn't see what was so bad about the so-called 'cursed' seal, in that case; it sounded like it could be very useful, actually.

"That sounds pretty good, doesn't it?" Sakura asked, echoing his own thoughts. "It would be especially useful for someone like me, with low reserves, but even someone with a lot of natural chakra could use the extra from the seal to boost their strength, speed, or whatever else above the normal limits. Unfortunately, not all of the chakra gets returned to you when you activate the seal, at least according to these notes.

"Some of it goes into this second seal, and if that gets enough chakra fed into it to become active…well—" she shrugged and held out another sheet of paper, this one no less incomprehensible than the first— "the results are pretty obvious."

If there was anything Sasuke hated more than his brother, it was other people flaunting their superiority to him. Intellectually, he knew he couldn't be the best at absolutely everything—his teammates would always be better at tracking, for example—but having a weakness so blatantly pointed out infuriated him. Allowing the anger he felt to show in his expression, he glared at Sakura.

"What?" she asked defensively, taking a step back from him. "It's—oh." Her cheeks flushed red from embarrassment, and an apologetic expression appeared on her face as she stepped back up to show him the paper again.

"Sorry, that was pretty rude, wasn't it?" she murmured. "I guess I really do get too caught up in whatever I'm studying. It's a good thing Naruto and Hinata weren't here to see that, or they'd never let me forget it."

"Whatever," Sasuke grunted. Her apology seemed sincere, but by this point, he just wanted the annoying girl to tell him whatever she knew. The sooner she did that, the sooner he could leave and she could go back to her equally annoying friends.

Apparently deciding that that was the closest she would get to an acknowledgement of her apology, Sakura set down the paper she had been holding and motioned for him to follow her up to the front of the room. Swiftly, yet with obvious care and precision, she drew a six-rayed spiral shape on the blackboard there, then added a number of characters spaced at intervals around it. Another spiral came next, this one formed from three tomoe and reminiscent of what the sharingan looked like when it was active, followed by a single character repeatedly drawn wherever the two designs intersected.

"Spirals," she said, turning away from the blackboard to face him, "represent equivalency or exchange when they appear in seals, depending on which direction they're drawn in. The first one here is an exchange—meaning something has been given up in order to gain something else."

As she tapped three symbols forming an equilateral triangle around the diagram, a curious expression appeared on her face, though it vanished before Sasuke could make it out. "This is what the user of the seal gives up," she said. "Mind, body, and soul—or, when they're used together like this, it can simply mean 'everything'.

"This," she added, tapping the other three outer symbols, "is what the user gains. Again, mind, body, and soul—but inverted, representing a separate entity. This part of the seal is an…enticement, I guess you could say. Once the seal activates, it sacrifices part of whoever activates it and, in exchange, attracts something else—a minor spirit of some sort, I suppose, probably whichever one happens to be closest at the time."

The confidence in Sakura's voice as she spoke was a sharp contrast to her embarrassed apologies of just a minute ago, and Sasuke couldn't help but think that it suited her better. At the academy, he had thought of her as another bottom of the class pretend ninja who would quit as soon as things got difficult, but his opinion of her—as with a number of other things, it seemed—had begun to change over the past several months. She might not be well suited for a front-line combat role, but Kurenai's lessons and the joint team exercises had taught him that in the long run, there was a lot more to being a ninja than just fighting.

That didn't make sitting through an impromptu lecture on fuuinjutsu any more interesting, though, he thought. As she continued to explain—at great, and, in his opinion unnecessary length—exactly how using the seal too often would lead to the user becoming a hollow shell of a person, inhabited by a twisted mixture of his or her original personality and whatever wandering spirit was attracted by the seal, Sasuke couldn't help the bored sigh that escaped his mouth.

"Why don't you just say that the seal turns you into a demon, and leave it at that?" he asked, during a momentary pause in her explanation. "All this extra stuff is just a waste of time."

For some reason, that seemed to affect Sakura more strongly than anything else he had said to her that night, to the point where she actually went rigid with shock. Visibly fighting to control herself, she slowly relaxed a bit, then nodded to him. He noted that she remained tense, though, and wary, as though she expected to be attacked at any moment. That seemed odd, as the only other person in the room was the jounin, Anko, who was very deliberately ignoring both of them.

"I guess that's a good summary," she muttered after a moment. More loudly, she continued, "All right, fine. The short version of the second part of the seal is that it forms an equivalence between the minds of the seal's user and its creator. Since it's connected to the first seal, it affects the mind of the trapped spirit, too, meaning that eventually all that's left is something that literally can't do or even think about anything except what Orochimaru wants. I don't know how long it would take for that to happen—he didn't know either, and these must be the notes he left behind when he fled the village—but it would happen eventually.

"There, all done. Good night, Uchiha-kun, Mitarashi-san." With that, she all but fled the classroom, vanishing out the door as quickly and efficiently as any ninja could ever have wished.

"Not a bad explanation," Anko said as she stood up and moved over to the door as well. "She left something out, though, probably because it wasn't in any of those notes. Orochimaru put that seal on nine other people too, not just me, but I was the only one who actually lived through it. Ten percent survival rate…think about that, and about why, if the seal is so great, he doesn't have one himself."

Her words seemed to echo in the empty classroom, sending a chill down Sasuke's back. No, he decided, he would definitely not be requesting the Snake Sannin's assistance any time soon—or at all, if he could help it.

- - -

Breathe in, breathe out, Sakura repeated to herself as she sat cross-legged on the surface of the river. The chakra expenditure required to keep from floating away with the current was just enough to prevent her from being able to relax and fall into the familiar patterns of meditation, but, fortunately, that wasn't her goal for this exercise. Forming a quick series of hand seals, she stretched out with her chakra, allowing it to infuse the water beneath her in much the same way as she used it to manipulate the air for the Wind Engraving technique.

The sun shone directly down on her, a bead of sweat tickling her as it slid down her cheek despite the cool air, but she blocked out that minor distraction and forced herself to concentrate even harder on what she was trying to accomplish. At what seemed like an agonizingly slow pace, the surface of the water around her began to still, eventually settling into a glassy, mirror-bright plane. The river continued to run to either side, as well as underneath, but Sakura was now seated upon a thin, perfectly flat layer of calm.

And now for the hard part, she thought. Working swiftly, she spun out another thread of chakra, even as she took great pains not to disturb the steady flows which were keeping the water around her still and herself from falling into that water. She had lost count of the number of times she had already fallen in the river over the past several days, and even if it was shallow and relatively slow-moving, it was still cold, and she was tired of getting wet every few minutes.

Maintaining so many separate chakra constructs was harder than it had sounded when Jiraiya described it to her, but she thought she was starting to get a feel for it; at least now she could see that it really was a useful lesson, and not just an excuse for the old lecher to ogle her in her bathing suit. She didn't think he was quite that perverted, but after hearing from Ino about the rumors going around that a strange, white-haired man had recently been spotted sneaking around the women's sections of the bath houses, she wouldn't put it past him.

Sakura held her breath as she stared at the water in front of her, willing it to conform to the chakra she had laced into it. Slowly, a tiny dimple, then a dent, began to deform the flat surface. The displacement was so slight that she wondered for a moment if she were imagining it, but as it grew deeper, she silently exulted at her success. Grinning to herself, she mentally traced the tiny chakra flow back and forth and watched the indentation in the water follow accordingly.

She had just started trying to create something more intricate than a simple dent when a loud bang echoed through the air, instantly breaking her concentration—and, a moment later, the chakra flows keeping her above the surface of the river. The result was both predictable and an annoyingly familiar sensation, and she swore to herself as she stood up and waded out of the water. Grabbing the towel she had prudently set on the river bank beforehand, she began to dry herself off, even as she looked around for the most likely culprit.

"Naruto!" she yelled, spotting him not far away. Brightly colored rubber scraps from a burst balloon littered the grass around him, providing an immediate answer as to what had disturbed her. Draping her towel around her neck, she stormed over to him, though the squelching sounds made by her wet feet—not to mention the barely-suppressed giggles coming from Hinata's direction—completely ruined her attempt to appear intimidating.

"Um…would it help if I said I was sorry?" her blond friend asked, the amusement openly displayed on his face giving the lie to his apology, which sounded rather half-hearted in any event. Hinata, now openly laughing at the two of them, abandoned her perch atop the tall wooden pole on which she had been balancing, landing on the grass with an elegance and grace that Sakura couldn't help but envy.

"Poor Sakura-chan," Hinata teased, giving Sakura's sopping wet hair a playful tug as she passed by to stand next to Naruto. "Don't you think she falls in enough already without you distracting her, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto pretended to consider the question for a moment, then shook his head and brightly replied, "Nope!"

Of course not, Sakura groaned to herself. It wouldn't be nearly as funny if I stopped falling in, now would it? Reluctantly, she admitted that this time, though, it had just been a case of bad timing. Ever since Jiraiya had split the team up for individual lessons, Naruto had been working just as hard on figuring out how to pop that balloon as she had on her tricks with the water, and she supposed she should be happy he had finally managed it.

"You're not really mad, are you, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, now looking at her with a hint of concern. "I didn't think it would be that loud."

Sakura sighed, releasing the last vestiges of her annoyance as she did so. It was impossible to stay angry with Naruto for long, especially over something as trivial as yet another dunking in the river after the dozen or more she had already suffered since lunchtime. Luckily, it was a fairly warm day given the time of year, so she wasn't feeling quite as chilled as she did after practice on some days.

"No, not really," she said, giving her teammates a reassuring, albeit small, smile. "I think I've finally figured out how to split my concentration well enough keep three flows active at the same time, but if you were able to distract me, I guess that means I need more practice."

Naruto nodded, looking relieved. Then he frowned and looked around. "Where's Ero-Sennin?" he asked. "I need him to tell me what to do next, because I don't think a balloon-popping technique is going to help much in a fight, except maybe against a clown."

Picturing Naruto squaring off in a classic dueling position against a ninja disguised as a street performer, both of them armed only with huge clusters of balloons, Sakura couldn't help but laugh. One look at Hinata's face showed that the other girl had apparently had a similar thought, as she was desperately trying to contain her own laughter. Naruto, on the other hand, was looking back and forth between them, the expression on his face quite clearly conveying his opinion of their sanity.

"He's probably off 'practicing his infiltration techniques' in the nearest women's dressing room," Hinata dryly replied after the two girls had recovered from their shared amusement, causing both Naruto and Sakura to sigh in unison. Jiraiya—or Ero-Sennin, as Naruto had aptly dubbed him after their first day together—could be frustratingly inconsistent, one day working the three genin to the point of exhaustion, and the next day abandoning them to their own devices. They still hadn't managed to decide whether he was actually doing something important during the times he wasn't with them or whether he was merely indulging his baser whims.

Sakura, in particular, wondered when, or even if, he would start teaching her fuuinjutsu as he had implied he would. After he had sent her to speak with Sasuke a few days ago, she had been sure he would begin soon, but instead, it seemed all she had gotten out of that particular incident was a newfound appreciation for the Fourth's skill. The cursed seal Orochimaru had created was frighteningly similar to her own seal in some ways, yet the Fourth had managed to avoid the problem with the host and trapped spirit gradually fusing into one being.

Not that Orochimaru saw that as a problem, she thought, shuddering slightly. The knowledge of how she might have ended up if not for the Fourth's brilliance made her feel ill, especially since she was almost certain that Orochimaru's seal design, modified to be able to affect a demon of the Nine-Tails' power, would have been sufficient for the Fourth's purposes. Rather than take that easy way out, though, he had broken it down to its most basic elements and remade it at great personal cost in an attempt to ensure that the person on which he used it would not become a slave to either the demon inside her or those who might wish to use her as a living weapon.

Sakura was certain, based on what she had read, that she would rather die than live as such an abomination, and it only redoubled her desire to learn enough that she might eventually be able to free the Fourth's spirit from its prison of his own devising. She hoped Jiraiya would be able to help her, but if not, she would not stop until she found someone who could.

- - -

As Naruto trudged dispiritedly up the walkway to his front door, he sighed and shook his head. Even though he had finally managed to complete the strange chakra exercise Jiraiya had given him, that accomplishment was overshadowed by his increasing worry for Sakura. Over the past few days, she had grown distant and easily distracted, often staring off into space for long periods of time, and she refused to say what was bothering her. He knew Hinata was concerned as well, though she concealed it better than he did.

"I'm home!" he called out, slipping off his shoes as he walked into his house and closed the door behind him. It was still early enough in the afternoon that he wasn't sure whether his mother would be home yet or not, but without Jiraiya there to instruct them, he and his teammates had decided to call an early halt to the day's training.

Naruto would be willing to bet, though, that all of them intended to practice some more on their own; he knew he did, after he got something to eat, and he suspected Hinata's father would want to spar with her for a while. He was less sure about Sakura—especially as she had less immediate motivation than her teammates, since she would not be competing in the final round of the exams—but something about the way she had been acting recently made him suspect that she had reasons of her own to work equally hard. He just wished he knew what those reasons were, or if there was any way he could help her.

Taking off his jacket and tossing it so that it hung haphazardly off the hall closet's doorknob, he wandered into the kitchen in search of food. To his surprise, he saw his mother sitting in a half-lotus position at the table there, apparently deep in meditation. That explained why she had failed to greet him earlier, but he couldn't remember the last time he had seen her meditating by herself; she had confessed to him, once, that it was not something at which she was especially adept, a trait which she had apparently passed on to him.

Disturbing her would probably be a bad idea, Naruto decided, so he turned to leave, but she opened her eyes just as he was about to step out of the kitchen. "Welcome home," she said as she stood up, stretching her legs. "Jiraiya didn't try anything today, did he?"

Naruto wished he could say she was being overly cautious, but, sadly, he couldn't. Odd as it might have seemed, he had a feeling that the fact that both of his teammates were girls was actually reining in the sannin's more outrageous tendencies, and he shuddered to think of what Jiraiya might be trying to convince him to do by now if not for them. Still, he wasn't sure how Hinata and Sakura were managing to put up with the constant stream of innuendo coming from the old man, most of which was directed at them.

"No, Mother," he replied, shaking his head. "Ero-Sennin wasn't even there most of the time today. I did manage to pop the balloon, finally, but I don't see how that's supposed to help me learn any new techniques."

His mother gave him a mysterious smile. "Jiraiya may be a pervert, but he does know how to teach," she said. "I don't think you'll be disappointed by his lessons."

Naruto knew enough to realize that his mother would say no more on that subject, no matter how much he pleaded. Then a grin spread across his features as he thought about what had happened after he managed to pop the first balloon, and he couldn't help but laugh at the memory of Sakura stalking grumpily towards him, dripping wet from her latest immersion in the river.

"If the rest of the training is anything like this, I think I'm going to have to do it in private," he said in response to his mother's curious look, after he explained what had happened. "Otherwise, Sakura will probably be plotting to kill me before I manage to get it all worked out."

Instantly, Naruto knew he had said the wrong thing, as her face became a blank mask, devoid of all expression. Cursing to himself, he frowned as he reviewed his words for a hint as to whatever might have upset her. He knew that Sakura was an uncomfortable subject for his mother, but normally she seemed almost hungry for any news of his pink-haired teammate. That was the only thing he could think of that might have provoked such a reaction, though.

Why don't you talk to her? he almost asked, then winced at the thought. One cardinal household rule, albeit an unspoken one, was that as much as his mother enjoyed hearing about Sakura through Naruto, she refused to meet her in person. It had been that way ever since Naruto first became friends with her, and until now he had always respected his mother's wishes in that regard.

Maybe it was time that changed, though. Hinata would say—had said, actually—that he shouldn't try to force the matter, but he wasn't sure she was right about that; it hurt to see two of the most important people in his life unhappy when they didn't have to be. It was obvious his mother wasn't happy with the way things were, and he knew that Sakura, despite all of his attempts to convince her otherwise, still wondered whether she was unwelcome in his house because of who she was.

Now was a bad time to do anything about the situation, because of the chuunin exams, but Naruto resolved to find a way to fix things once they were over. Even if he wasn't sure exactly how he would go about that just yet, he was sure he could come up with something, especially if he managed to convince Hinata to help. Despite her misgivings, he didn't think that would take too much work, and he made a mental note to talk to her about it the next time they met.

- - -

Hinata hummed quietly as she walked through the small garden she had set aside for herself. It was nothing spectacular compared to some of the other gardens in the Hyuuga compound, but she knew every plant in it by heart, and she had tended them with her own hands ever since she could remember. She knew her father thought it was a hobby unworthy of the clan's heir, yet for whatever reason, he indulged her in this regard, if in few others.

The twilight, she thought, always brought out the best aspects of her garden. Even in winter, a few hardy seasonal flowers continued to bloom, and their colors and scents seemed somehow richer during that time when the last few lingering traces of sunlight still stained the western sky, yet the moon and stars were faintly visible overhead as well. Shivering slightly and pulling her jacket closer around her, she began to walk more swiftly towards the main building; her father might indulge her to an extent, but that tolerance would end in a moment if she kept him waiting. Hopefully she would not disappoint him tonight as she had the past several nights.

As she stepped over the threshold and slid the outer door closed behind her, Hinata looked up and smiled briefly at the sound of light, rapidly approaching footsteps. Moments later, a tiny, dark-haired missle burst into the entryway, loose white robes swirling around her as she came to a sudden stop.

"Hina-neechan!" the little girl exclaimed, before coloring slightly and glancing down in embarrassment. More sedately, she walked over to Hinata and bowed, glancing up through her bangs with an anxious look on her face.

Hinata smiled down at her sister, feeling a sudden warmth flow through her as she solemnly bowed in response. "Hello, Hanabi-chan," she said. "How was your day?"

"Good!" Hanabi replied happily, almost literally bouncing with impatience as she waited for Hinata to finish taking off her shoes. "I studied poetry today, and how to clean kunai so they stay sharp, and Akira-sensei read me a really good story, too, about the Yuki-no-Onna. It was sad, though."

Hinata stepped up next to her sister, then took her hand. As they walked down the hallway together, she sighed, realizing that by the time she was finished with the rest of her training for the night, Hanabi would already be in bed. While she didn't begrudge the time spent with her father, whether it was spent learning how to fight or how to govern, she couldn't help but wish she could have more time for the one who was, in a very real sense, her motivation for so many things.

Seven years ago, the attempted kidnapping by the Cloud had almost ruined Hinata. Looking back on her memories of that time, she didn't like to think about what might have become of her if not for Naruto and his mother, especially as, barely a month prior to that incident, her own mother had died giving birth to Hanabi. Her father, suffering from the double loss of his wife and twin brother, had entirely occupied himself with the affairs of the clan and village, and at some point, Hinata had realized she would do almost anything to keep her sister safe from the kinds of problems to which she herself had already been exposed—including become a 'proper' heir as her father expected of her.

She knew it would be hard, but with Naruto to help her, she was determined to become strong enough to lead and protect everyone in her clan, especially the sister she quickly grew to adore. It had not been until she was eleven years old, though, that the reality of her future situation fully struck her. One day, she had chanced upon her father using the branch seal to punish her cousin Neji—for what, she didn't know—and for the first time, she truly understood the implications of the fact that on the day she assumed her position as head of the clan, she would be expected to place that seal on Hanabi. While she had always disliked the concept of the branch seal in an abstract sense, that day she had resolved that it would die with her father.

An insistent tugging on her sleeve drew her attention away from her wandering thoughts and back to her sister, who was looking up at her with an expression on her face halfway between annoyance and uncertainty. Blushing slightly, Hinata realized she had completely missed whatever Hanabi had been saying, and she shook her head. Between her concerns over Sakura's recent behavior and her lack of progress in adapting some of the jyuuken's more advanced defensive techniques to suit her own personal style of fighting, she had more than enough to worry about without dragging up old memories.

"I'm sorry, Hanabi-chan," she murmured, making an impulsive decision to delay meeting with her father for a little while longer. "Come on, let's go get a snack, and I'll tell you another story, okay?"

Her father would be upset with her, no doubt, but she had gained practice over the past several years in deflecting or weathering his anger, and she resolved to work especially hard that evening to make it up to him. Compared to the delighted expression on her sister's face as they headed towards the kitchen, any possible punishment seemed unimportant anyways.

- - -

Author's Notes: My thanks to all of you who are continuing to read this story! It's great to know that people are actually looking forward to new chapters, and I hope you all enjoyed this one as well. There was quite a lot of foreshadowing, some obvious, some...not so much, and things will begin to heat up next chapter. As for my interpretation of the cursed seal, I must confess that I haven't been following the newer chapters of the manga very closely due to an increasing lack of both time and interest, so I apologise if anything in here directly contradicts recent canon. Regardless, conceptually associating Orochimaru's cursed seal and the Shiki Fuujin was far too tempting an opportunity to pass up for several reasons, so hopefully it doesn't come across as being completely unreasonable.

As always, thank you all for reading this, and I look forward to your comments!