A DIFFERENT GENEALOGY

ACT VII
~ SUCH TWISTED GAMES WE PLAY~

"You three certainly look like you've been having fun..." Itachi noted, greeting the bedraggled team seven after the opening of the summoning scrolls.
"Are you trying to be funny again? Because you really aren't getting any better at that…" Sasuke growled, massaging a less-than-natural bruise on his shoulder.

Itachi ignored him, taking in the team's appearance in general. His brothers bruising aside, his sister looked to be in just as serious a condition; that hand on her stomach told him something had happened concerned the Kyuubi - it's chakra had been released at the very least. A glance to the remaining blonde showed a very erratic looking Ino. Her gaze was shifty, untrusting, and paranoid almost. Like she didn't trust anyone in the room.

That somehow worried him and offended him, but Itachi took no time to consider the reasons as to why that may be. He had other more important matters to worry about, such as the fact two of his siblings and a close friend were suffering the effects of going head to head with the renegade Sannin.

"Did we make it in time for the exams?" Sasuke asked, his tone promising sever pain if he received a negative reply.
"You're a day early, thank god… What on earth possessed you to take on Orochimaru?" Itachi replied, his worry shown through the irritation in his voice.

"We just figured he was a super-powered creep! I didn't recognise him till he told us his name, and BY that point Sasuke had already passed out because of the doom-hickey!" Naruto replied in their defence.

"And Naruto had already been gut-jabbed" Sasuke added.

"And you, Ino? What possessed you to try and probe the mind of an S-Class Missing-Nin?" Itachi asked, expecting an equally valid excuse.

Instead, she froze momentarily. Itachi also noted the dark look on Naruto's face and resolved to somehow bully the information out of Ino later (he would pretend to believe whatever excuse she conjured for now). He suspected he had missed something of importance.

"I don't know; I think I just freaked out after he knocked out Naruto too…"Ino replied lamely.

Itachi gave them an unreadable look before heading towards one of the doors at the side of the hall.
"Come on; you three need a serious check up before the preliminaries begin" he informed them, holding the door open.

"You're lucky I managed to get here so quickly little missy; his chakra had almost spread to the conduction vein. Any longer and you'd have been one of his mindless drones and never known the difference" Inochi wheezed, finally finishing the examination of his daughters neural chakra network.

"But he used my own chakra!" Ino protested.

She was clearly horrified by how close she had been to the line that separated bad from disastrous.
"Yes, but he was controlling it with his own thoughts and ideas Ino; you might as well have chopped of your own head" he explained, badly.

Ino's frown prompted him to give a better explanation.

"Your own chakra was aiming to rewire your thoughts to suit his purposes; you would never have noticed by yourself since it was acting by his will to be unnoticed."
"Oh… Oooh… Oh boy, I really didn't think that through did I?" Ino berated herself.

She slumped back down on the sofa she had been sitting on whilst her father repaired the damage to her neural chakra network. Now that the job was finished, her head ached something awful. She felt like she had been practicing the Mind-Body technique a few hours too long.

She thanked the gods they had arrived a day early; had she tried to go through whatever was in store for them next she was certain she would have found herself in a worse pickle than the one her father had just removed her from. Her own problems aside, she did not even want to think about what would have happened to Naruto and Sasuke had they tried to continue.

In another room, the occupiers of Ino's thoughts were going through similar examinations.

Naruto's examination has shown no direct problems; she had been able to mould her chakra before arrival with only slight hindrance. The Hokage had deemed her able to continue with the exams, though had promised to have the five-pronged seals removed at a later date. The blonde had raised no objections; Ino needed her father's help far more than she did at the moment, and she wouldn't be surprised if fixing Ino wore him out for at least a few days.

Naruto now sported a gleeful smirk on her face as Sasuke was forced to remove his shirt so the Hokage could properly examine the doom-hickey on his neck. Sasuke glared at her over the old man's shoulder, but showed no other signs of his discontent at being ogled like a zoo animal. The Hokage prodded the mark on his shoulder, and Sasuke released a small wince.

"You're very lucky to be alive, Sasuke; this is the cursed seal of heaven. It has a ten percent survival rate" the Hokage informed him, taking a long frustrated draw from his pipe.

Sasuke paled.
Ten percent? That was it?!

"Normally, I'd have this sealed off, but my resident seal master has been absent for several months now. I believe Kakashi would be able to seal it, but he's been assigned an A-rank and will not return for several days…" the old man grumbled to himself.

"Uh, what will happen if I don't have it sealed Hokage-Sama? And will I be able to keep going with the Chunin exams?" Sasuke asked, not liking the worry on the wrinkled leader's face at all.

"For one thing, if you use it, your cells will bun out rather quickly - decreasing your lifespan. It will additionally try to control your actions, your thoughts, in such a way that would be beneficial to Orochimaru, eventually forcing you to seek him out" the man informed him gravely.

Sasuke paled at the mere idea of voluntarily looking for the long-tongued man - never mind the lifespan-shortening and mind controlling. Those problems could easily be solved even if he did use the thing (though he had no such intentions). Seeking out the man however…
If that was a side effect of using the thing then there was no way he would ever force a smidgen into it.

"So, it's like an artificial fuzz-ball without the fuzz-ball?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke briefly noted the similarities.
"In a manner of speaking, yes" the Hokage replied, after comparing the two himself.

"So all he has to do is keep it locked away mentally till someone can seal it off. I do it with fuzz-ball, so Sasuke should have no problem so log as he doesn't let himself get too angry - that's always what sets fuzz-ball off…" Naruto surmised.

Sasuke gave the Hokage a look that verged on the very edge of being imploring.
The old man took in their expressions and sighed in resignation (Sasuke noted Naruto's eyes had taken on that terrifying irresistible shine).

"I would greatly advise otherwise, but Naruto is right in a sense. Even when sealed off, the sealing is based on a degree of mental control. Besides, you've both worked hard to get to this point. It would be unfair to withdraw you at this point. I will insist that this bee take care of as soon as possible however" the Hokage smiled, adding a serious tone to the end of his reply for good measure.

Sasuke could not help himself from letting Naruto's infectious grin cross his face. He pulled his shirt back on (Naruto pouted in disappointment - the Hokage chuckled) and headed towards the doorway. He needed to let Itachi know before they were taken to wherever they would be staying for the night.

It was not until he held the doorknob in his hand that he realised Naruto was lagging behind. Turning around, he could see her on the verge of asking the Hokage a question - a troubling one if her expression was anything to go by - before dismissing the idea and hurrying over to his side, grin masking her discomfort for the benefit of the old man giving her an eye of curiosity.

"Come on Sasuke! Let's go annoy that prudish brother of yours!" she grinned manically as she opened the door.
His own curiosity aside, he found himself smirking at the idea anyway.

"Orochimaru did what?!" Fugaku raged, horrified by the news his oldest child had just delivered to him.

"Exactly what I just said; in either case, we'll have to wait until Jiraiya-Sama or Kakashi-sempai can arrange the sealing procedure. Inochi may be able to see to Naruto, but not for a few days." Itachi informed him, trying to calm his father despite the increasingly bad news.

"What? What can't he do it now?" Fugaku asked.

"Ino was the only one left conscious after Naruto collapsed; she was forced to use one of her mind techniques and her force it back onto her, under his control. Inochi spent several hours removing the effect from her neural system. He will be out of action for a few days as a result" he frowned, not happy with Ino's actions in the slightest.

For any normal Genin, the first idea to spring to mind upon confrontation with a renegade ninja of Kage level would be to flee far, far away. But Ino? No, she decided to ignore common sense and try to invade his brain instead (he sincerely hoped she had not discovered any of his more traumatising habits whilst doing so).

Naruto's motivation was understandable, and Sasuke had be trying to run away (the stalker-like tendencies of the man had made it impossible, but he did try). He failed to see the logic in the mind-readers actions. They made no sense, and for some reason angered him.

Fugaku gave his eldest son the scrutinizing look he often used on Sasuke when he spoke of Naruto outside of his son's notice. Why did he sound more worried about the Yamanaka girl than his siblings? He was unusually irritated too…

Oh no.

The blonde had not woken up his hormones, had she? No! He was having enough problems with Sasuke and Naruto! He did not want to deal with Itachi's hormones too! Older he may be but, as much as he hated to admit it, his siblings had gotten further with each other in barley two months than he had in eighteen years and caused more damage than he could handle!
If Itachi realised his hormones were finally active…

Fugaku always knew there was a reason he had been slightly wary of the Yamanaka girl.
Now he knew why.

He was going to kill Inochi.

"Uwah, those matches were really something!" Naruto claimed, diving into her bowl of take-out ramen.

Team seven had seated themselves on the bridge, feet dangling over the barrier as they consumed numerous bowls of take-away ramen from Ichiraku's in celebration of making it though the forest of death, and for the progression to the semi-finals for Naruto and Sasuke.

Sasuke had been the first to go up in the whole tournament, against a guy from Otogakure. Thing had progressed well until the man had siphoned of Sasuke's chakra - awakening to doom-hickey. Thankfully, Naruto's trust in Sasuke's mental control had been well founded. He had managed to suppress the creepy black markings before they had a chance to spread to his limbs. Sasuke had then proceeded to knock the irritating chakra-stealer unconscious.

Ino had faced off against her own twin in a fascinating match. Both were evenly matched in physical arts, but Inoro gained an edge over his elder sister with his prodigal ability with reading facial expressions, reacting to habits only he could pick out from daily interaction with her.

Ino had countered him with her own notable abilities with their family techniques, blasting the boy with mental blocks and instigators of confusion to counter his predictions. In a climax, he had knocked her to the ground and prepared to execute one of the few techniques he had actually mastered.

"Oh god, he's lost it!" Shikamaru grumbled, slapping a hand to his fore head in frustration with his team-mate's actions.
"I can't wait to see how she handles this!" Naruto grinned, hanging over the barrier eagerly to gain a better view of her friend's match.

"Inoro, you do realise that technique is absolutely useless don't you?" Ino asked in an exasperated tone, as if she had tried and failed to explain this many times before (which she had - many, many times).

"Shut up piglet! I've not got much else!" her opponent raged, breaking the hand sign to momentarily wave his arms angrily.
"Well maybe if you paid more attention when I tried to explain the techniques to you, you'd have some better options, boar-head!"
"Shut up! I don't see you studying facial psychology after dinner either!"
"Boar-head!"
"Piglet! Piglet, Piglet PIGLET!"

"Err… what are they doing?" Choji asked, directing the question to anyone who could answer.

Sasuke had wondered the same thing, but chosen not to voice his question to save his pride - not that it had escaped Naruto's notice when he twitched in response to Choji's question.
"I think they're trying to see which one looses it first; psychological warfare. Is that right Shikamaru?" Naruto asked the pineapple-hairstyled boy, much to Sasuke's irritation.

He had seen the looks Shikamaru had been shooting Naruto since they had first entered the room and he did not like them one bit. Now Naruto was furthering her contact with him. He really did not like that; Sasuke briefly realised this was jealousy, and then dismissed the thought to continue to glare at the boy.

"Yeah, but I wish they weren't so loud… Dam pain in the ass Yamanakas…" Shikamaru droned in reply.
"Ah! Ino's gone and lost it!" Sasuke pointed out with enthusiasm only noted by Naruto and his brother (who stood in place of Kakashi in his time of absence).

Indeed Ino did seem to have lost the psychological game, for her long hair now lay in tatters on the floor of the arena - much to her brother's horror. Sasuke looked to his brother in puzzlement, an expression mirrored even by Naruto. He simply nodded towards the arena in answer: 'just watch and see'.

"That's it! I'm going to turn your brains to mush!" Ino yelled.

There was a note of breathlessness in her voice that had not been present before the removal of her hair. Her twin raised an eyebrow but did not seem to find anything to be wary of, and did not hesitate to yell out the name of Ino's most basic mind technique. Ino made no move to dodge the incoming technique, but grinned as she pulled her left hand up into the air.

The strands of hair that had littered the floor formed a fine, haphazard net in front of her, blocking her brothers supposed trump card from reaching her.
"Ha! Bet cha' didn't see that one coming Boar-Head!" Ino rasped out gleefully.

Up above Sasuke was thanking his stars his Sharingan had gained their second tomoe; with it had come the ability to see chakra, and thus he could see the intricacies of the battle others could not (except those two Hyuugas - they could probably see better than he could).

"What did she do Sasuke?" Naruto asked, a hint of irritation in her voice.

Sasuke supposed that was because their precautions prevented her from activating her own fully developed Sharingan to do the same thing he was. She probably had some suspicions, but Naruto did not like just having suspicions. She had grown used to the instant knowledge provided by her improved memory bank, and liked having proper confirmation.

"Ino channelled her chakra into those strands of hair, but kept her chakra connected to her left hand, like that puppet guy form earlier. She made a living net to catch her brother's technique, and pulled it out after he made himself vulnerable…" he explained.

Itachi nodded, confirmation of his words.

"I get it, because It's her hair, she has a better link with it than just chakra. Inoro's consciousness is stuck until she releases him..." Naruto grumbled to herself, frowning in concentration.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
"I don't think she'll last long though; she doesn't have as much stamina as we do, and she used a lot earlier with those other techniques. She's barley standing up" Naruto explained, pointing to Ino's shaking legs with one finger.

Her words came true moments later when Ino collapsed to the floor, not quite unconscious but not far from it either. Her strands of hair drifted silently to the floor, releasing her brother from her trap. After a few seconds of waiting her brother struggled to a sitting position, before he too collapsed from exhaustion.

"Since neither combatant is able to continue, I declare the fourth match between Ino and Inoro Yamanaka to be a double forfeit"

Naruto had been the last member of team seven to compete, and had faced of against Kiba Inuzuka. Apparently, the boy had been holding a grudge for the time she broke his nose when they first met, since he had not even begun to think of taking it easy on her. He had immediately landed a punch to her face with enough strength to send her hurling backwards.

Ino and Itachi had been force to restrain Sasuke form going down and murdering Naruto's opponent there and then, such was the rage that consumed him. Sasuke's rage, however was nothing compared to Naruto's, and she had proceeded to prove her reputation as village prankster extraordinaire with clones and transformations. Ino had shrieked with laughter when Naruto pulled out some sort of pheromone technique to end the match.

Apparently, it was one taught in the girls classes back in the Academey. It was supposed to smell of flowers and such, but even on the balcony, the sulphuric scent of rotten eggs had been obvious.

Thus, they found themselves on the bridge with their ramen, discussing their training for the second round of matches that were to take place in a month's time. Sasuke and Naruto both knew they would have to go through their respective sealing procedures at some point, but beyond that, neither was sure of what to do for their training.

Or Naruto wasn't - Sasuke could easily train with his - their - family. Kakashi had mentioned that he would be taking several Jonin only missions at the current time, so Naruto was not too optimistic about the Jonin giving her some training.

"Whatever; it'll work out somehow!" Naruto shrugged the matter off cheerily, diverting her attention back to her ramen.

Ino chose that point in time to deflate the cheerful atmosphere.
"Naruto, we need to go to the hospital at some point..." she stated in a serious tone of voice.
"What? Why?" Naruto asked around a mouthful of noodles.
"Remember what that creep said before you passed out?" she asked in a low voice.

The slackened hold of Naruto's chopsticks sent alarm bells ringing in Sasuke's head; he knew he had missed something, and this was it.
That creep had done something, he knew it!

"How could I forget Ino? I've been trying to ignore it but…"

Ino nodded in sombre understanding.
"I figured; but I asked him what he meant, and he told me to go pull the influence cards on the nurses at the hospital. I was probing his chakra at the time, so I don't think he was lying either…"

Sasuke hated being the one out of the loop. It was very frustrating to listen to people talk about something you did not understand; they may as well have been speaking ancient Iwan for all he understood of the conversation. It really was incredibly annoying.

"Why would he even tell you?" Naruto frowned.
"Apparently we were 'interesting'..." Ino stated, making a bad attempt on the man's voice to lighten to mood a little.

"What are you talking about?!" Sasuke growled, finally loosing his patience.

Ino looked somewhat torn between answering him and preventing his involvement in something that was clearly important.
Naruto glanced at him and sighed, taking the matter into her own hands.

"After you passed out, I fought that creep. After he put that second seal on me, he told me something about… Well, he hinted at where my Sharingan came from. I think he knew exactly where it came from, in all honesty…" she told him, far too calmly to ease his state of mind.

"I'm not going to tell you what, since I want to see if he was telling the truth first, but either way I'll tell you what he said. I promise, just let me do this by myself, okay?" she asked, her eyes not wavering from their gaze into his.

Sasuke did not like the situation at all; this was far more serious than he had originally let on. He had assumed it was some sort of physical problem, not an emotional one, and especially not one on this scale. But, in spite of his reservations, he knew that Naruto needed the closure on her background before he did.

He grunted in agreement with her request. Naruto's eyes shone with gratitude, and she squeezed his hand tightly, beyond Ino's view.
"Alright, now that we have Mr. Grumpy's approval, what are we supposed to be looking for in there anyway?" she asked.

Sasuke could not help it. He was so stunned by her Idiocy that he did not even stop to think of the effect his actions would have on his image. His hand simply moved by itself, slamming into the girl's back. The force of the blow caused her to loose her balance on the barrier, and tumble from the bridge the short distance into the calm river bellow them.

She rose from the water, treading the water to keep her head in an aerated zone, cursing, yelling, and generally expressing her displeasure.
"Ino! What the hell was that for?!" she raged, glaring towards the blonde girl, who stared at Sasuke with a disbelieving expression on her face.

Naruto followed her gaze to the black haired boy giving his had a wide-eyed stare.

"No way! You pushed me in?!" she gawped.
Sasuke twitched and Ino laughed at her emphasis on the pronoun.

The blonde girl fell into such a fit that she found herself about to join Naruto in the summery water of the river, and she grinned mischievously at Sasuke as she grabbed hold of his shirtsleeve. His eyes widened when he realise he was too late to stop himself falling Ino to the river, and the joined their hysterical blonde team-mate with a loud splash.

Fugaku slivered open the door of his youngest son's room. He lay sprawled over his mattress in a state of such calm it reminded him that, despite his recent appointment to ninja status, he had only passed his thirteenth birthday a few weeks before graduating the Academey. Naruto lay sprawled in the same bed in much the same fashion, her snoring loud enough to rival Sasuke's.

Surprisingly this did not bother him; Naruto had been hijacking Sasuke's (and to a lesser extent Itachi's) room since they became better acquainted with each other. He knew for a fact that Naruto often stole Sasuke's shorts when she had none of her own in a wearable condition.

He could not say he was at ease with their relationship; he was far from it. On the other side of the same coin, his objections or disapproval would never make sense unless they discovered the reasons for his objection. Itachi seemed to think they would not care even if they did, and watching them with their guards down for once (especially Naruto, who had far more reason to be guarded than any run-of-the-mill ninja) he couldn't help but wonder if he was right.

Neither was the type to take rules seriously if they got in the way, that much he knew almost instinctively. It was not a stretch of the imagination to believe social norms were included in that disregard. Still, in spite of that possibility, he instantly repelled the mere idea. He would have to reveal the truth them at some point - he simply would not accept this going any further than it had.

Not now though; with Chunin exams to worry about and what Naruto affectionately referred to as a 'doom-hickey', neither his ward nor his son could afford any distractions. There was also the small matter of Orochimaru's infiltration of the exams to worry about; no doubt, the police force would be working double shifts for some time. Itachi would have his hands full with his ANBU duties too.

No, now was not the time, but soon. After the Chunin exams, he would at least come clean with the identity of Naruto's mother. That would be all; they were not quite mature enough to be told of just how Naruto ended up in the family in the first place. Besides, that would also demand an explanation of her father's identity, and that was completely out of the question.

Naruto's birthday was not all that far away; he supposed that would be as good a time as any to tell her. He would let her deal with Sasuke herself; god knows she understood him better than he did.

"Father! Jiraiya-Sama is asking for you! He just popped up on the walkway! On a frog…" came a hoarse, disgruntled whisper.

Fugaku turned to find his oldest son standing behind him looking somewhat frazzled. Fugaku groaned: no doubt, his old teacher had introduced his prudish son to Naruto's obsession or something equally troublesome. He wasted no time in turning from the door to Sasuke's room and following his eldest towards the living room.

He had sealing rituals and revelation to discuss with his old mentor.

"You heard me!" Naruto yelled at the perverted old man who had rendered her temporary trainer unconscious.
"Give me one good reason why I should train a brat like you!" he countered with equal volume to her own, jumping down off the toad he was seated on.

"Cuz if you don't I'll tell the Onsen lady you were peeping in on the women's bath!" she grinned triumphantly.
"Pft. You think she'll be surprised?" he snorted.

Naruto clenched her fists; This man was smart enough not to be completely goaded into her verbal games. It seemed she would have to up the stakes somewhat.
In all honesty, she had the perfect technique for this, but she had been hoping to test it out on someone other than the perverted frog-man first.
Sasuke, for example, would be a perfect test subject.

Unfortunately, old froggie here had not really left her with much of an option. Silently vowing to exact her revenge on him for dragging the technique out of her later, she took a deep breath of air and grinned manically (it was at this point then Jiraiya realised the girl was a sadist in the making).

"SEXY TECHNIQUE!" Naruto bellowed, forcing her chakra into her hand seal and expelling it in a puff of smoke.

As far as Naruto was aware, it was the sight of her imagined, naked, sixteen-year-old form that persuaded the man to finally agree to take over her training from the glasses-guy Fugaku had temporarily arranged for her.

As soon as he had agreed, Naruto released the technique and reverted to her much less curvy twelve-year-old body. She was glad the technique had worked, but she would need to test it out on Sasuke and Itachi to be sure of its effectiveness. Maybe a few of the other boys from her graduating class too.

"I guess it couldn't hurt, I already have enough ideas for volume three with this…" he mumbled to himself, replacing a pad and pen inside a pocket of his short haori.
"Volume? You're a writer too?" Naruto asked in curiosity.

"I am no mere writer! I am Jiraiya, author of the literary masterpiece Icha Icha Paradise!" he proclaimed, taking up a stance that was supposed to induce a feeling of awe.

Jiraiya spent the rest of the day wishing he had taken Fugaku's advice and kept his mouth shut as he was incessantly hounded for a signed copy of his masterpiece. He really thought his old student had been joking when he had said she was obsessed with the book.

He was wrong. Very, very wrong

"Naruto, focus your chakra for me again" Jiraiya instructed the girl, who was clutching her stomach with both arms in recoil after the removal of the five-prongs.

Something about the way she manipulated her chakra bothered him. He had never been terribly adept at sensing chakra, but training with the tads had taught him a few things. He could sense chakra a lot better than most people could even without using sage chakra, and he was certain there was something different in her manipulation than usual.

Naruto gave him a suspicious look, but did as instructed. Jiraiya silently gathered natural energy and converted it into sage chakra, enhancing his sensing capabilities. Concentrating on the flow of her chakra, he followed its path through out her network. He noted something strange, and it was not the second, more ominous, source of chakra slowly trickling into and boosting her own.

She was purposely directing her chakra away from her eyes.

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes in suspicion but said nothing, instead moving from her problems with chakra moulding to summoning contracts. Whatever the girl was thinking of doing was her decision; he knew better than try and stop a woman when they had made their mind up on something thanks to his own team-mate.

Besides, introducing the toads to the progeny of their favourite summoner was a far more appealing notion.

"What?" Sasuke asked in shock staring at his paler-blond team-mate in a mixture of pure shock and sheer horror.
"Naruto's in the hospital because she used up too much chakra summoning that giant frog that was hopping around the forest yesterday" Ino repeated, a hint of a snigger in her voice.

To call the news surprising would have been an understatement. Sasuke had not believed it possible to collapse from chakra exhaustion when there was a god-knows how old demonic canine sealed in a persons gut, constantly supplementing a persons chakra with its own. Apparently, he had been wrong.

thus he found himself hurrying down the streets of Konoha with his paler-blonde team-mate towards the hospital.

"Since when did Naruto have a contract with the toads? I thought only that Sannin had the toad contract?" Sasuke asked, somewhat irritated.

He had assumed that Naruto would eventually sign the same contract as he eventually would; the Nin-Cat contract held by the Uchiha clan. He knew it was possible to have more than one contract, but he didn't imagine a higher contract like the toads would be too pleased with that. For a race of giant amphibians, they were surprisingly big complainers.

Heh. Naruto would drive them mad.

"Come on, we need to find out what room she's in! I want to go visit Lee and Choji too…" Ino grabbed his arm, protesting at his slow pace by reverently pulling him inside the hospital and towards the reception desk.

After gaining the correct room numbers, he followed at a more rapid pace. Far be it to say he was worried, he knew Naruto would not be knocked down by a bit of chakra exhaustion, but something irked him that it had occurred in the first place. Draining herself to exhaustion was a bit much for a couple of frogs wasn't it?

"You go on ahead Sasuke; I want to check up on Choji!" Ino said cheerfully, bringing his thought back to the earth.
"What? What about Naruto?" he asked in surprise.
"I'll visit her later!" she replied as if brushing aside an annoying fly.

Sasuke gave her a scrutinising look.

"What are you doing?" Ino asked in horror when Sasuke poked her shoulder.
"Making sure I'm not in some creepy illusion..." he stated pointedly, forming the beginnings of a dispelling seal.

Ino was acting rather strange; normally Sasuke would be pulling her away from a room they ad already arrived at to make sure Naruto gained enough rest. He could not think of any reasonable expiation for Ino to put of visiting her best friend except a badly executed illusion. Though if his Sharingan had not picked it up, this was not Ino (instead, a very good impersonator) or something was wrong with his eyes.

For her part, Ino found this rather offensive, and showed her displeasure through her feared elbow-to-stomach manoeuvre.

"See if I try to give you two any privacy again!" she growled, walking past the groaning heap on the floor and into Choji's room, making sure to slam the door behind her.

When Sasuke opened the door to Naruto's room, he felt the headache already growing upon sight of the messy, unmade, and empty bed.

After taking a moment to deposit the takeout ramen on the bedside cabinet, he dashed from the room and down the hall towards the nurse's station for the ward. Naruto could not have gotten far without the nurses noticing; people were hardly going to let the village pariah run around the hospital unchecked.

"Excuse me, could you tell me where Naruto Uzumaki is? She isn't in her room" Sasuke asked the nurse on-duty.

She had pink hair that screamed familiar for some reason. Noting her nametag, he derived the conclusion she was Sakura's mother.
Her expression at the mention of Naruto's name confirmed his suspicions.

"She's gone again?! I swear, I leave that girl alone for ten minuets and…" she continued grumbling to herself as she marched past Sasuke and down the hall, eyes cast into the different rooms.

"She could have just said she didn't know…" Sasuke grumbled finding himself with an un-answered question and a missing girlfriend.

Muttering curses to himself, he quickly dashed off down the hall in the opposite direction to the opposite pink haired woman, not wishing to fall victim to the irate woman's wrath. He passed several rooms, none of which contained a hint of the blonde haired girl, and was contemplating going a level up onto the roof to search for her, when a familiar voice echoed from an un-searched corridor ahead of him that veered of to the right.

"Ow! Hey, watch it Naruto! You punch him, you punch me too when I use the shadow possession!" Shikamaru complained somewhat stiffly.

His senses that solely existed for picking up on Naruto's knack for getting herself into messy situations spiking, Sasuke sped from the door he had just been about to enter and down the hallway to his right. In his haste, he crashed into s collection of waylaid cleaning supplies. Ignoring the new collection of bruises growing on top those from the forest of death, he pushed the mops and brushes off and continued his pace.

He groaned when he finally caught sight of the correct corridor. There had to be thirty rooms on each side! He was busy inspecting the seventh room when he heard Naruto once aging, sounding like she was about to land herself in a rather messy pile of shit.

"I've got a real-live demon inside me! I won't loose to a creep like you!" she yelled.

It was loud enough for Sasuke to determine he was at the completely wrong end of the corridor. One of the Jonins from the knockout matches rounded the corner and opened the door to one room in particular as Sasuke cranked up his speed. Moments later the creepy redheaded kid from Sunagakure emerged fro the room looking ready to kill not something but someone.

For a fleeting instant, a horrible sense of fear rushed through his veins at the sight of him. Something about the kid was just off, but very familiar for some reason. It was like when a person described something but could not make the right words come out. They knew the word, but put it into an actual word.

He dashed past the sand ninja, recovering from his momentary freeze, pushing past the green Jonin into the room. Grains of sand were scattered on the floor, and dangerously close to Lee's form on the bed. Deriving a conclusion, he internally thanked the green Jonin for arriving when he did.

Gratitude aside, he was more worried about Naruto. She stood frozen to the spot, raising alarm bells in Sasuke's head. Naruto did not run away from a fight, no matter how tough her opponent. Even if scared out of her wits, she still fought if the need arose (it was one of her most admirable qualities).

No, Naruto was not scared of the sand creep's skills, she was probably exited thinking about the fight they could have in the finals. There was another reason she was so spooked, one that encroached a lot closer to home than simple skills.

She flinched when he placed a hand on her shoulder for a barley discernible instant, before crashing towards him. Her rasping breath revealed her panic far more clearly than simple observation could. He could see Shikamaru giving him the 'troublesome' look over Naruto's shoulder, and could not help giving him a smug triumphant look despite the seriousness of the situation.

"He has… He has something inside him too Sasuke… He's like me… That could have been me…!" Naruto rasped, barley audible.

Sasuke tightened the grip his arms had around her. With that information, it was not hard to do the maths; the sand creep had an inner demon of his own, only he had not managed to turn out like Naruto. Something had gone wrong somewhere, and turned him into the bloodthirsty creep the knew and loved.

It was probably like looking through a mirror into an alternate dimension and meeting her doppelganger.

Sasuke had never seen Naruto this shell shocked before, and he did not like what he saw one bit. He was glad he had bullied Kakashi into teaching him to open his second elemental nature after he and the grey haired guy had sealed the cursed seal off. He was going to need it when he reduced that creep to ashes in the finals.

I didn't think Ino had been given much of a more central role in the story so far, so I put her match in with her little twin. I know things are going somewhat canon right now, but that should change within the next few chapters. As for Sakura, as much as I like her (Suck it up bitches), I felt she was just an added character in the story that wouldn't have any use, so I removed her and replaced her with Inoro. I felt bad breaking up the Ino-Shika-Cho trio so...

I didn't spend too much time on Naruto's training or Sasuke's because I want to hurry this along to the Chunin exams, and get onto the Search For Tsunade Arc. That will be where things take a divergence of sorts; I think the next chapter will deal with the Chunin exams themselves, and I might shed a little more light for Naruto on her background - thus going into the relationship-problem stuff. I'll try squeeze in a bit more of ItaIno interaction too.

Hope you liked!
Nat.
xxx