A/N: Hope you all had a good New Year! This chapter was soooo hard to write. XD It's literally 11 PM on Thursday when I am finishing this. Even though I had ideas… I just couldn't do it. XDDD So that's my excuse if it sucks… Enjoy? :D

I'm reeeeally looking forward to the plot, so it should come around in a chapter or two. ;P See you in two weeks! Wish me luck on next week's finals! XD

-/-

The moment we stepped into that forest, the whole damn world exploded.

Trees shattered around the three of us, splinters as long as my arm piercing Raiyo's shoulder, Eiji's chest. I choked out a cry of distress as I was blown off course, eyes widening as the blood spilled over their limbs.

But then I noticed the little things. The shattered trees had no shadows, and the blood fell like an artist's paint, not quite like real life.

I'd never been really good with genjutsu—it was too damn much like lying—but like lying, I could see through it easily enough.

"Release!"

The carnage splintered apart as easily as the trees; drawing in a breath, I glanced around. Raiyo huddled on the ground and Eiji struggled to stand, eyes glazed over. And two Kusa-nin closed around her, obviously intent on the damn scroll clutched in her hand.

Oh hell.

Two kunai whipped along their pointy way toward said Kusa-nin's heads. One slid across the boy's cheek; the other just cut through the girl's dark green sleeve. Both spun, but my next blade wasn't aimed for them. Instead, I drove it into my own palm, swearing minorly at the familiar pain and slicing along the old scar. Hand sufficiently coated in my own blood, I dug it into the pouch hanging at my waist, closing crimson fingers around a slippery handful of sand.

For a moment, the damn stuff resisted me, until it was swathed in scarlet and chakra. Inhaling sharply, I pulled my hand back out and flung the sand into the air.

It drifted gently downward… and then shot toward the enemy shinobi like driving golden rain.

My aim was terrible.

Swearing again, I redirected the attack, but enough of the tiny grains had penetrated Kusa-nin skin that they had started to retreat, hands flying into seals. My words grew more and more colorful as I darted forward, struggling to draw sand from the ground as well; I tripped over Raiyo, let out a particularly vehement "Damn it!", and twisted around to release the genjutsu still holding him in thrall. He blinked dazedly up at me, apparently amazed I was still alive.

"Get the hell up and help me!" I shouted, scrambling to my feet and dodging to the side as the grass beneath me decided to grow teeth. Very sharp teeth.

I lurched forward, un-bloodied hand outstretched, and gasped Eiji's release as my fingertips brushed against her shoulder. Her arm snapped out, bokken suddenly clasped in her fingers, hitting our female adversary solidly across the cheek. Suddenly, the damn grass stopped trying to eat us as she squeaked and stumbled back. The male ninja was already out of reach; he glanced over his shoulder to make sure his teammate was following, and then sprinted off into the trees.

Furious, I leapt forward, summoning my swirl of sand, but Raiyo reached out and snagged an edge of my clothing. I rounded on him with a snarl, and he cringed backwards.

"They're probably… luring us after them," he said quietly, shoulders hunched. "There were only two…"

"That's not what it looked like, damn it," I hissed, but struggled to relax my grip on the chakra in the sand. "They were running because of their injuries! And they—"

"Sunako," interjected Eiji, grinning wearily. "We don't need their map. If they wanted ours, their path must be long, girl. And besides, if you go that way, you'll get us disqualified. Love ya, hun, but not enough to let you go off-track."

I frowned at her, and then my shoulders sagged. I gathered my sand back to me and slid it back into the pouch, then turned to survey the trees we had yet to really venture into.

Raiyo might have no talent, but what the hell did that make me?

All I could do was throw things all the hell around and hope I hit something.

-/-

The trees grew wider around us and the shadows closed in as we finally left the dappled light at the forest's edge. The chain-link fence faded out of sight behind the massive trunks, so old and wise. A sense of claustrophobia tightened around my neck for one panicked moment, but damn it, I lived in a closet. After then years, I was used to it; the feeling passed.

Only to be replaced by another. I swear, I felt my heart quicken, my blood race through my veins. This was real. No more coddling from Aruno-sensei, no more begging uninterested genin for training battles. I mean, Hyūga Neji was a decent opponent—hell, I couldn't beat him in a fair fight—but he just wasn't concerned with fighting someone weaker than him.

Here, people went for those they thought were weaker. And if they thought that was us…

Well, we'd fended off one team already with no more injury than tiny little teeth-marks and images that would haunt us for the rest of our kami-damned lives.

"Hey," I said, struck by a sudden smirk. "Helluva show. Let's get it on the road."

-/-

Eiji hadn't stopped teasing me for the wrong turn I'd made (there'd been a fork on our map, and we were now headed down the longer road), and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why, because I knew for damn sure that it was Raiyo's fault. He knew it, too, but who was he to argue with Eiji?

Course it didn't bug me. She was too damn goodnatured about it. But it sure as hell confused me.

With a toss of the scroll, I switched to point, leading the group back to the fork; it looked quicker than following the longer path through. I glanced around, checking for the landmarks that were the only real indications of our route—no trails in the Forest of Death—and skidded to a halt. On the limb behind me, Eiji and Raiyo did the same to avoid colliding with me.

What a coincidence. Gaara's route intersected with ours.

Hell.

"Turn around, my friends, we're taking the longcut," I informed them. Eiji hopped forward to peer over my shoulder.

"Red hair… Your old boyfriend?"

I snorted. "Let it go, Eij. I knew him for one damn day when we were five." She grinned.

"Alright, alright, but why can't we go that way? Damn, he might even have a better map."

Because I don't like his eyes. Hell, I couldn't really tell them that. "He might," I agreed reluctantly.

With another wordless grin, Eiji handed the scroll back to me and took point. Damn, there was no arguing with her. Ever.

Then again, her cavalier attitude did calm my nerves a touch. Frowning, I leapt after her, casting Raiyo—who was looking back over his shoulder at me—a sour glance. The expression wasn't actually directed at him, but he probably took it that way, because he turned his face away.

"He controls sand, like m e," I called after my dark-haired friend. "But he's a hell of a lot better at it."

"I'll keep that in mind," she replied, face still shining with glee. She probably wouldn't. Hoping to somehow contain her, I lurched ahead to lead once more.

-/-

Gaara saw us coming, of course. He turned as we dropped like spiders to the ground; I flung up my arms in a futile attempt to protect us from the wave of rippling gold. My own sand took over, spraying upward in a thin shield; though Gaara's attack still shredded my arms, at least we were alive. I stumbled backwards, gritting my teeth against the pain, and Eiji skipped nimbly around me, bokken in hand. Arms trembling with pain, I struggled with bandages pulled from my waist pouch, tangling the white fabric as I tried to stop the blood flow. I'd have to wash out the sand later, I knew, as I watched my best friend take a step forward to her death.

Or—maybe I was overreacting. I didn't know how far Gaara would go. I swallowed and narrowed my eyes and prayed she was merely stepping toward fatal injury or incapacitation. She could come back from those.

But we didn't have to find out. Metal glinted in the edge of my vision, the only damn warning before a silver stinging storm whipped around the six of us like a whirlwind. Senbon—oh, hell, more enemies. Well, at least Gaara had half-turned, and his two teammates had pivoted, distracting them from us.

My hands twisted upward, dancing through a few seals—monkey-horse-dog—and I shoved chakra into the sand in my pouch. One grain of sand could redirect the trajectory of the needle. Hell, I didn't have aim like that—damn it, if I got out of this…

Yes, practice, life and death a little more imminent. Every single grain I had jumped into the air, whizzing side to side in a wild and uncontrolled ballet. I snarled and concentrated harder, wishing I could stop, and let the sand take over, but… Well, stopping thinking is damn hard.

Growling, I glared at the spinning senbon as if I could redirect them with my mind. I couldn't. My wildly whirling sand colliding with the razor tips of hundreds of needles—but there were at least a thousand. Senbon slid through skin as if it was air, and blood wept from wire-thin wounds on our faces and arms.

Two seconds later, each and every needle not embedded in flesh had thudded into the ground. I spun, turning my back on Gaara and his team to check for the newcomers, seeing that Raiyo had already darted off, leaving a trail of blood. I hoped he had a damn plan, but a gut feeling said he had run away. Damn it.

At least Eiji was still here, senbon sticking out of her bokken, eyes flashing. For half a second, I thought she'd found the needle-wielders, then I swear, she launched herself toward Gaara and his squad.

Well. He was distracted, I guess. Great time to snatch his scroll.

"EIJI!"

She glanced over her shoulder and grinned cheekily, then continued toward the redhead encased in a shell of gold. (Damn, did that make me want to practice even more—if I could figure out a way to carry the sand with me, because a really big gourd was not my style.) The blonde girl twisted around, giant fan dislodging senbon left and right and flinging them at Eiji, who hopped nimbly to the side, responding with a deluge of shuriken.

Swearing colorfully, I drew the sand back toward me and limped for the trees. Bright colors were flashing through the leaves, quick and flighty but a clear indication of someone's presence to the sharp eyes. Muttering darkly, I whispered further seals and promises of blood to the sand and fed it a bit of my remaining chakra.

Accepting my offering, it sprung back into the air and coiled towards the patches of color. Ninja trying to be stealthy shouldn't wear such vivid clothing.

A thin thorn of sand could have killed the attackers in an instant, and it was one of the few things I could make with just a handful of the dusty gold. But—Hell, I didn't want to kill anything.

I was mad, though. I put a needle through his eye. The sand dissolved before it hit his brain.

He feel forward, tearing leaves as he crashed through them, dragging someone behind and—oh hellhellhell. Gods above; I'd put out my own teammate's eye. Raiyo had been sneaking around to take out one of the senbon-attackers—Ame-nin—and that's who he clung to, the enemy shinobi's sleeve, taking her down with him.

"EIJI!" I screamed again, agony pulsing through my voice, and locked in a battle with Gaara's blonde teammate—the brunet, the one Eiji had jokingly referred to as hot, seemed to be off in the trees fighting another Ame-nin with a… mummy? Doll? Puppet?—she turned to answer my cry.

The fan's gust hit her side, blowing her back towards me. I swore, tears mingling with my words, and returned my gaze to Raiyo, because he was the one dying, and damn it, I loved Eiji, but she was going to get back up on her own.

In front of me, free of my will, my blood-soaked sand slit the Amegakure kunoichi's throat. I hardly noticed.

Having used most of my bandages after Gaara's attack, I began scrabbling in Raiyo's pouch. Bandages, bandages—damn, how the hell did you save someone when you'd stabbed them in the eye? He was going to bleed to death, damn it!

Folding up the mess of cloth, I pressed it against his bleeding socket. His other bright orb stared up at me, wide, unperturbed by my cascade of swearing—or maybe he was just going into shock. Damn it! Damn damn damn! He needed a medic—we needed to get ourselves disqualified so we could get back.

Eiji appeared at my side, bleeding from a bash on her head. She looked rather dizzy. I glanced back in time to see another Ame-nin leap from a massive tree branch and engage the blonde; Gaara, who had been watching the brunet's battle, sand roiling… twitched. And then a wave, a slavering golden monster of dust, rose into the air and killed both at once.

Eiji shifted her gaze just in time to see dark crimson spatter into the air; she grimaced, then turned back to me. "The hell happened to this idiot?"

"It was me," I muttered desperately, tempted to lift the bandages to see if they were helping. I resisted, instead pressing more against the wound. Raiyo's other eye was sliding closed. "Accident—we have to get him to a medic…."

"Yeah, let's—" She stopped, then crouched by the kunoichi's corpse and rifled around in pockets and pouches until she pulled out a scroll. Grinning triumphantly, she tugged it open.

"New map. Girl, we are half a day from the tower now. We'll help him there."

"Eij—"

Her eyes hardened. "Hun, I am not losing this test because of that boy. We can carry him there. It won't be any different from the rest of the time."