Eating around a mask is the most awkward part about being in Anbu, even after being in the service for years. Kana glanced over at her team leader and wondered how he was able to eat noodles so easily while she still barely managed a prepackaged burger. Tenpo had it down to an art form and she respected the hell out of him for it.

Her squad had been stationed in the tower of the 44th training ground to ensure teams weren't going to be attacking each other once they arrived. Her eyes were glued to the security monitor, despite it only being the first day of the five day stage. Tenpo set down his cup of noodles and wiped his mouth with the back of his glove. "You know, I'm pretty sure if you stare any harder at that screen, your Kurogan will evolve and make the television explode."

She knew that he meant to lighten the mood, but Kana only kicked her feet up on the table in front of her and slumped down in her seat in response. "Are you pouting?" Koh laughed, taking another bite of his tempura, "Come on, lighten up, kid. We have an easy job today!"

Tirahashi kicked his teammate's chair and sucked his teeth, "Are you even capable of having a shred of empathy? Neji's in there."

"It's fine," Kana mumbled as she ripped open her second burger, "Guy did an amazing job at training his squad, including Neji. They're going to make it. And when the second stage is over I'm going to be training him myself." She meant that, even if she worried. The more she thought about the situation the more she realized how unfair it was to her friend to doubt his skills as shinobi.

"Man, I remember my exams," Tenpo said as he stretched in his chair, "The first two days were a breeze, we ended up stealing some group's scroll while they slept on the first day and just ran to the tower. We got lost, though, and somehow wound up at one of the gates on day three."

Koh laughed again, "I can totally see that, captain. You were probably one of those dorky types that couldn't read a map for your life."

Tenpo chuckled, "No, we weren't given any maps and had passed through a genjutsu that was created to get teams turned around."He looked over at Kana, "What was your exam like?"

Bloody.

Kana swallowed before speaking, "My team was almost immediately attacked by Cloud ninja team. I took some shuriken to the leg, which had gotten infected by the second day. I think it took us three fights before we actually took out a team with a Heaven scroll for our Earth-"

"Wait, you didn't ask what type of scroll they had before attacking?" Koh interrupted, incredulously, "Seems like it would have saved a lot of trouble if you just asked…"

She glanced over in his direction, then went back to staring at the monitor. "We didn't care."

Koh stopped chewing his tempura for a second and Tenpo looked up at her. She knew they both were expecting an answer, even though it was obvious what she meant. "We knew we would have to fight in the third stage, so we wanted to weed out the competition as much as possible. So… We killed as many people as we could and burned the scrolls we didn't need."

"That's… That's pretty messed up-"

"It was smart," Tirahashi cut in before Koh could make that sentence any worse, "People die in these exams, either in the forest or in the third stage. It makes sense to knock out as much of the competition as possible." As much as it tore Shisui apart to do so...

"Y-yeah but they didn't need to kill-"

"Be quiet, Nisa," Tenpo ordered.

Kana stared at the empty wrapper in her hand, searching for some sort of response in the greasy remains of her unhealthy lunch. Something on the screen moved in front of her, though, and she crumpled up the two wrappers together. "Hey, didn't the second stage just start?" she asked, picking her feet off up off of the table and leaning forward. Tenpo leaned over in his seat to get a look at the television screen, "Yeah… Who is that? Are they genin?"

"There's no way," Koh muttered under his breath, "Even if they somehow started the stage with both scrolls, how did they manage to get through the forest…"

Their captain nodded, "Exactly what I'm thinking. The forest is full of dangerous animals, traps, poisonous plants and other shinobi. How did they bypass all of that and get here without a scratch?"

Kana dropped her wrappers into a waste bin and felt a chill run down her spine as the short redheaded boy looked over his shoulder directly into the camera, "It's… That's not possible, captain, that's just it. They fought a team and got through the forest in an hour and a half." She heard Koh say something about this team being intense but she dismissed it. Something about that boy was twisted. His face was completely devoid of any emotion, while his teammates looked pleased at their record-shattering time. He wasn't normal.

Scooting her chair back, Kana stood up and stretched. "On that note I think I'm going to take the first patrol," she stated as she turned on her heel towards the door. Her captain only nodded with his eyes locked on the screen.

The sound of footsteps echoed against the walls of the 44th training ground's tower as Kana made her way down a set of stairs in yet another hallway. She wondered how the genin were expected to actually find the room they needed to be in once they finished and were granted access to stage 3 by their sensei. Then again, she wasn't really sure if there was a specific room needed… Her team jut randomly stumbled across the main hall and was led out by Kakashi. The more she thought about it, the more she figured it didn't really matter where you opened the scrolls as long as you were inside the tower. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of voices, one male and one female, resonating through the hallway.

"…Supposed to do while we wait?"

"How am I supposed to know? It isn't like I've done this before."

Kana turned a corner and saw the three genin she saw earlier on the security footage: A tall blonde woman with a large fan, a man with a painted face and the redhead with a gourd strapped to his back that was almost as big as he was. "You guys sure are early," Kana called out, causing the two older-looking shinobi to whip their heads around in surprise.

The painted man was the one to speak first, "Yeah thankfully there really wasn't any traffic along the way. Once we got our scroll from some lame Rain ninja we were set."

"But now we have no idea what we're supposed to do," the blonde one said, "Is there any place we can sleep or something?"

Kana nodded, thankful that these two at least didn't come off as hostile – though that could be because of her Anbu uniform. "Yeah we have a clinic on the north side of the first floor that should have some beds available for use. I really doubt they'd mind if you guys took advantage of them, you deserve it for getting here first, anyways. I'm pretty sure you guys actually broke the record – what a way to represent the Sand."

The blonde woman grinned and shifted her weight to her left foot, "Thanks. I'm Temari, and these are my brothers Kankuro and Gaara. This our first exam, so we're glad things have been running so smoothly so far."

"Temari, shut up."

The gruff voice startled Kana, and seemed to surprise the two taller genin as well. Gaara looked over at his sister in disgust. "Quit wasting my time with this."

'His voice is just as intimidating as his outward demeanor,' Kana thought to herself. They couldn't see it through her mask but Kana smiled and tilted her head to the side, "C'mon you have five days left of sitting around and waiting for the others to arrive, what's a little conversation going to hurt?" She kept a friendly demeanor going but she watched as Gaara reached for that gourd on his back – she noticed that his siblings had suddenly gone from genial to anxious in a matter of moments.

"I don't talk to garbage. Now go away," he growled, his hand pulling the cork out of his gourd.

Temari put her hands up in defense at her brother, "Please, Gaara, don't do this. Not now."

"Yeah, Gaara, come on she's just being friendly," his brother responded, mimicking his sister's defensive stance, "And it isn't like there's much else going on right-" His words stopped as sand began to flow out of the gourd, and the look of anxiety the siblings had on their faces switched to that of genuine fear. Kana stepped forward and prepared her body for a fight, increasing the chakra flow to her hands. "Look, I don't know what your problem is but remember that you're not home. You're in the Leaf because you're allowed to, and if you try picking a fight not only will you lose but you will cause serious political strain between our villages which is something I don't find very appealing. So whatever you're thinking about doing, stop. Now."

Gaara fully turned to face her with a scowl etched into what were previously somewhat cute and boyish features. Despite his obvious anger, the sand stopped moving. It didn't recede back into the gourd, but it didn't continue to flow out. "I don't appreciate being spoken to like that," he snarled, "People in my village don't dare even look at me." The way he put a slow emphasis on every word he spoke gave his speech a strangely intimidating feel. His siblings had taken a few steps back, eyes darting back and forth between the two, and were clearly too afraid to say anything. Who the hell is this guy? The flow of chakra increased and Kana allowed it to exit her body, enveloping her hair in what looked like a black flame; Gaara looked unphased, though his siblings seemed to look even more nervous than before.

"I don't know what you've been through, or what kind of life you've led," Kana snapped, "But taking it out on people who were never involved is a childish thing to do, and isn't something a shinobi looking to advance to the next rank should be doing." For the first time since the conversation started Gaara actually looked minutely affected by her words. His eyebrows furrowed and his thin lips pressed together into a tight line as the sand funneled itself back into the gourd and he replaced the cork. "Whatever," he grumbled before walking across the large hall. His siblings almost seemed to collapse out of relief, Temari looked over with an apologetic expression mixed with shock. Something told Kana that this guy didn't usually just walk away from a fight, and that she was getting out of a really messy situation.

Kana threw a hand up in a limp wave to the woman and kept walking down the bending hallway. 'Don't worry, lady,' she thought, 'I get it.'

"Tsuki!"

She heard the sound of her teammate's footsteps before his stern shout, and she whipped around just in time to see Koh fly down the stairs. He stopped abruptly, seeing Temari and Kankuro still standing in the hall awkwardly, then turned to look directly at Kana. "We need to go." Koh's tone was stiff and told her that she wasn't in trouble for getting off on the wrong foot with the red haired freak. No, this was something else. Something was really, really wrong. She wordlessly chased after him up the stairs until Tenpo and Tirahashi appeared in the hall, joining them and falling into formation without breaking pace.

"Three genin from the Village Hidden in the Grass were found dead by Team Piru," Tenpo said hurriedly as they reached the balcony that took them to the outside staircase. Kana's brow furrowed, "It's normal for teams to get killed in the exams, though."

"They were killed before the exams even started," Tenpo said gruffly, "And, according to Anko, they were killed by Orochimaru."

Her foot almost missed the final step as they reached the ground. Orochimaru… One of the Leaf's sannin, and greatest traitor… Was here? Now?"

As if he could hear her thoughts, Tenpo continued, "We don't know why, and we don't know what he's after. Anko has ordered two other teams, Team Sai and Team Mosinu, to begin scouring the forest for any sign of him, and they've already started tightening security around the village tenfold."

"Wait a minute, isn't Kakashi's team participating in the exams?" Tirahashi inquired from behind, "Could it be that he's after the Nine Tails?"

'Oh, yeah, that Naruto kid…' The thought hadn't even crossed Kana's mind as the team raced across the field towards the tree line. "That is a possibility," their captain agreed, "But we don't know anything for sure. For now our job is to just make sure he isn't in the forest and to report any findings to the Hokage directly."

A chill raced down Kana's spine as they approached the forest. She had never met Orochimaru but had heard stories and read a couple of files featuring him – experimentation, forbidden techniques, betraying the village, joining the Akatsuki… He wasn't someone she wanted to meet at any point in her lifetime.

He was evil, and he was in the Forest of Death with Sasuke and Neji. She grit her teeth angrily, subconsciously reaching to the pouch she had attached to her hip; a surge of protectiveness nearly overcame her as her fingertips grazed her good luck charm, and it took an extreme amount of willpower to not break away from her team to find the boys. There weren't many people Orochimaru could want to track down in the forest, and if he had wanted any of the flora or fauna he would have collected it when the forest was uninhabited; with that in mind, she knew that he most likely was after either Naruto or a kekkei genkai user.

Kana was aware of Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka making it to stage two with Sasuke and the Hyugas, but she didn't think he would be so bold as to risk time by attacking all four teams. 'If I was a madman that was interested in living forever, what would interest me the most?' She bit her lip. "Captain, I think that the fox would pique his curiosity but I don't think that would be his main goal," she said as they jumped into the trees, "From what I understand he has an obsession with living forever, which is why he performs his experimentation. At first I was wondering he could be after a bloodline trait like the Byakugan or Sharingan but, the more I thought about it, he could be interested in the Yamanaka's Mind Transfer Jutsu."

"Why go after a rookie, though? Wouldn't it make more sense to kidnap someone that has the jutsu mastered?"

That was one thing she had considered, yes, but that's why she made sure to only propose this as a theory. "He may not want to attack someone that has skill. When I reviewed her file with Genma I saw that her combat skills are extremely lacking - she's a sensor type. Someone that's better at recon than anything else. She wouldn't stand a chance against him, and he could force her to work as some sort of spy for him. Or he could learn the jutsu and use it to flit from body to body, keeping his own on life support."

Her teammates kept silent, but her captain nodded in agreement. "That makes sense. We'll keep an eye out for the Yamanaka girl but as it stands our orders are to search for him explicitly."

"I understand." She just hoped that she was correct.

She saw Koh stand up to her left from his resting position, crumbling up a ration packet and jamming it into his pouch. Sometimes she wondered if he actually carried about ninja tools or if the pouch was just his portable trash bin. The woman groaned as she picked herself up off of the forest floor, grabbing a fistful of dirt to put out the small fire they had built. She hated sleeping on the ground.

"It's been four days," their captain stated, "We're going to start heading back to the academy to await further orders. Are you all ready?" Kana activated her Kurogan and watched the world morph into a 360 sphere of black, grey, white and blue. When she was younger she used to marvel at the change, but years of being a ninja only caused it to remind her that her team was in danger. "Spread out, but stay in formation. Rain, Tsuki, swap positions so we can use the Kurogan to keep a better eye on our six."

Without a word they did was they were ordered. Kana jumped back and crossed paths with Tirahashi and they changed positions. It wasn't long before the team formed a large diamond in the trees as they started running, about 100 feet across. Despite being an accomplished shinobi, something about being in the back made Kana uneasy; she was so used to knowing Tirahashi had her back that the change made her feel exposed. Naked. She wondered if this is what he felt all of the time.

She accidentally sent too much chakra to her feet and she heard the crunch of the branch breaking beneath her sandal before she felt her body teeter forward. Kana swore under her breath as she awkwardly launched herself forward to the next branch; she sent enough chakra to her hands just in time for her to grab hold of the branch and use her momentum to swing herself under it, propelling herself forward to the next. "Quit checking me out and pay attention to what you're doing, Tsuki," Koh called out from ahead, "Unless you're going to scare away the critters with your clumsy gymnastics." He was joking but he was right. Kana needed to stop paying attention to how her ass was exposed and pay attention to being the eyes of the team. She couldn't afford to lose her footing in a situation like this.

Something up ahead caught her eye – there were two figures, but one had just disappeared. She zeroed in on the location and saw that there was one feminine figure standing over the body of a male. "Captain, there's someone up ahead. A female over a dead male, about 20 degrees north."

"Alone?"

"Yessir."

Tenpo gave the hand signal for changing course, and the formation turned ever so slightly in the direction she gave. Her heart raced as the group picked up the pace and they quickly began to close the distance between them and whoever this person was. She saw the figure kneel down to the ground and reach out to the body. Picking up a scroll? No. The figure was making hand signs and chakra flared around her hands.

"She's using some kind of jutsu," she called out, "On the dead body, she's doing something to it."

"How far away are we?" her captain asked, his words laces with stressed.

"Coming up on 200 meters!"

Whatever this figure was doing, it was using a decent amount of chakra. Kana watched as blue flames enveloped the corpse's head in what looked like a cool inferno. It only lasted a few moments, though. The figure pulled back from the body, put something into her pouch and leaped up to the trees. "150 meters! She's moving!"

Up ahead, she heard Tenpo swear as he pulled out a kunai from his leg pouch. "Alright, listen up. Tsuki, you're the fastest so I want you to run as fast as you can. Do not let her get away, do you understand?"

"Sir!"
"Rain, back her up. Nisa, come with me to check out the body."

"Sir!"
"Got it."

Kana raced past her captain in a matter of moments. She was suddenly grateful for all of those morning runs she spent with Guy as she jumped from branch to branch, her sandals barely coming in contact with the wood before she was propelling herself even further forward. "75 meters!" she called back to her teammate. Tirahashi was fast but he still lagged far behind – Kana could only barely hear his confirmation in the distance.

She barely registered the massive snake that slithered on the tree next to her, or the carnivorous plant she flew by. Kana was so intent on catching the shinobi she didn't notice the kunai that flew at her face until Tirahashi screamed at her to look out; the ninja drew her kunai to eye level just in time to deflect it away from her face. The kunoichi stopped on the next branch to quickly scan the area and realized that the woman she had been chasing after had completely vanished when her attention was focused on the knife. She didn't run off, or fall to the forest floor, she was just gone. The sudden silence of the forest was nearly deafening and Kana fought to ignore it as she used the Kurogan to pay attention to every minute detail she could lay her eyes on. There was no doubt in her mind that there was something weird going on with that woman and –

Where was Tirahashi?

"Rain, status!" Her call sounded like an explosion against the wall of silence, and her ears rang at her in protest.

Nothing. That was when Kana realized that the forest was too quiet – there was always some sort of background noise in a place like this, something to remind people that they weren't the only signs of life in the vicinity. Where was the sound of rustling leaves? Where were the chirping crickets? It occurred to Kana that she may had been caught in a genjutsu, so she pressed her hands together in the hand sign to release it.

'Release!'

Everything stayed the same and a deep sense of dread began to form a knot in her stomach. There weren't a lot of ninja that could create a genjutsu strong enough to fool her kekkei genkai, and there were even fewer that could fight a release. Without another thought, Kana put the kunai to her wrist and slashed through her thick glove with enough force to cut into the pale flesh beneath it. Pain was a last resort to getting out of a genjutsu, and a lot of shinobi took to stabbing themselves in the thigh or hand to get out of it; she never understood this. Stabbing her hand could severely hinder her in battle, and the thigh carried a major artery and important muscles. By slicing her wrist horizontally she could cause the intense pain required to break free without endangering her life.

She did it just as the female transformed into a male and in a last ditch attempt at stopping her. Kana launched herself forward and channeled enough chakra to her kunai to where it looked like it was on fire in her hand. It was something that Asuma had perfected, but she only had a basic grasp on; she threw it in the direction of the mysterious ninja, knowing full well that she wouldn't be able to hit a person that was being chased. However, Kana wasn't trying to pierce the shinobi. As she closed the distance she felt a sense of satisfaction as the kunai hit the trunk of a tree just as the person in front of her landed on its branch. If she had been as skilled as Asuma, she would have been able to have it rocket through the tree and maybe a couple of boulders. She wasn't, though, and she was counting on that. Because she could only create a cloud of chakra around the kunai, the impact with the tree caused a small explosion that knocked the culprit to the side.

15 meters.

Kana deactivated her Kurogan for a brief moment as the shinobi struggled to regain his footing, a patch of blood seeping through the bindings on his left ankle. Her heart skipped a beat when he spun around. His hands were forming hand signs for a jutsu she didn't recognize, but his hands didn't interest her. It was his gaunt, white face. The purple markings around his yellow eyes. It looked as if this person was wearing two faces: One she didn't recognize that was layered over one she did.

"Earth Style, Mudshot!" Tirahashi shouted from behind. Chakra-infused mud flew past Kana as Orochimaru flung out his arms. She reactivated her Kurogan and kicked herself up into the air, as opposed to forward, and began to move her hands in a blur to form hand signs. The half dozen snakes that had appeared from his sleeves curved up and to the side in Kana's direction just as she was able to spit a jet of chakra at him.

Orochimaru was able to solidly land on the branch, but visibly cringed when he felt Tirahashi's mud slithered over his shoe to trap him in place. His grimace flashed into an expression of satisfaction, though, as his snakes finally caught up to Kana and wrapped around her ankles. Her jutsu was cut off as she was dragged down and Kana quickly began channeling her chakra to her legs and out of her tenketsu in pulsing waves. The snakes began to disintegrate, but not before they were able to violently slam her down on the tree branch. She felt the wood crunch beneath her body before the sound reached her ears. Pain rocketed through her back and chest. The breath rushed out of her body. Kana saw stars, and it only barely registered that she could hear her captain in the distance.

'No time to… I'm okay, I need to get up!' she screamed internally. Kana used all of her willpower to extract herself from the crater her body had made in the tree, focusing on getting the wind back in her lungs. She saw with her Kurogan that Tenpo and Koh had finally caught up to them, but she wasn't sure if they'd be able to take on one of the sannin like this even as a team.

Kana jumped into the air again as she reached back into her pouch for the spool of wire, her other hand grabbing a kunai from her leg. She tied the wire to the handle and allowed herself to fall, creating a shadow clone that kicked off of her chest to get back into the fray. The kunoichi felt adrenaline rush through her veins as she fell, watching three branches go by before she finally threw her kunai upwards. There was a grunt of pain that came from above. It sounded like Koh, but she wasn't sure of it as she swung herself around the tree she had been standing on. Her Bokugan showed her that Tenpo had advanced towards the legendary ninja with a chidori, and two shadow clones, while Koh fell back to sign. Tirahashi threw shuriken that she knew had small paper bombs attached.

Kana yanked the kunai from its original spot and used the small time she had in the air to pull it back to her hands so she could throw it to the branch behind Orochimaru's. She heard the shuriken detonate and watched Orochimaru jump to the side, directly into Tenpo's path. Kana used the last of her momentum and strength to swing herself upwards. Orochimaru kicked off of his branch to jump backwards, out of Tenpo's range and directly where Kana wanted him.

Koh stopped making hand signs and threw his arms forward, "Running Water Spear!" he shouted as seven water blades appeared on either side of his body. They flew forward towards Orochimaru as Tenpo's clones launched him in the same direction with his chidori. The legendary ninja barely escaped the attack; Tenpo had clipped his right hip with the lightning as he dodged to the left into the path of Koh's water blades. One blade went through Orochimaru's left forearm, one through the same leg Kana had injured earlier and a third cleanly sliced through the top of his left shoulder. As he stumbled backwards Kana had finally reached her destination. She channeled her chakra to the palms of her hands, grabbed the sannin by the back of his tunic and used the momentum to pull herself down on top of him. Her other hand pressed to his chest so that he was sandwiched. Before she even landed, Kana had already begun pulsating her chakra through his body just like she did with the snakes. Except, this time, it was intended to completely liquefy his insides.

She barely registered the smirk form on his strange double-face. She saw him form a hand sign a split second before Orochimaru's eyes widened in what looked like an expression of pure excitement.

"What-"

"Tsuki, move!"

Kana was still stuck in mid air with Orochimaru - she couldn't get away as they fell off of the branch. His neck seemed to lose all of its bones as it extended up and around, his mouth opening to reveal inhumanly sharp canines. Fangs.

Time almost seemed to stop as his lips came down on her sternum, teeth piercing through her vest and flesh. "Magnificent," he hissed.

Kana screamed as something that felt like fire exploded through her body. She caught a glimpse of her teammates jumping down after them before her Kurogan deactivated. She could feel her jutsu being cut short as her chakra faded away. Orochimaru pulled away with a wicked smile that stretched his bizarre features."Oh, yes… This forest is full of exciting things today, isn't it?" he purred. Without saying a word he created a wall of mud that broke their fall; it curved out and around until the pair were encased in a sphere of solid rock. Kana barely paid noticed. She clawed at the rock beneath her and writhed in agony. The kunoichi couldn't think. She could hardly breathe, only capable of making guttural cries at nothing.

"Well aren't you the dramatic one," she heard Orochimaru say before he turned her body over so that she was lying on her back, "I don't think anyone has made this much noise over the mark." Kana felt his hand brush over her head and for a moment she was too disoriented to understand what was happening. It wasn't until the click of a snap being released rang in her ears that she realized he was removing her Anbu mask.

'No, no, no,' she whimpered in her head as the other two snaps came undone. Air rushed to meet her sweaty forehead and she could only watch in horror as the man pulled her black turtleneck mask down to her neck. Her body felt paralyzed, only capable of trembling.

Kana always felt anxious, on edge. As she stared Orochimaru in the face, with the warm air on her exposed skin, she felt the cold jolt of fear flash through her body.

He knelt down and touched Kana's damp cheek with the palm of his hand. She expected it to be cold, like ice, but it was actually just as warm as her own. Somehow that made the sensation even more sickening as he stared at her like with an analytical expression. It occurred to Kana that he had planted a curse mark on her flesh, but before he even knew who she was. Why? She felt her skin twitch beneath her skin, and suddenly Kana's Kurogan activated. "That chakra of yours truly is unqiue, isn't it?" he cooed, "Judging by your eyes I assume you're a part of the Shimi clan… I thought as much. You're one of the few gifted with the ability to wield that black chakra like any other nature transformation jutsu."

Kana could only stare blankly back into those snake-like eyes. Through the rock she heard her teammates attack the sphere but she knew it was useless. They weren't getting through to them until Orochimaru allowed them to. She choked out a groan as the pain intensified.

"Don't worry, child, I have faith in you. I am granting you some of my power, like I did with the Uchiha boy. I can't wait to see how things play out, little girl."

'Sas..uke…? I... Was wrong...'

Her Kurogan deactivated just before she lost consciousness.