The next morning-
Mari woke up slowly to find kakashi sitting in a chair beside her bed. Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder as she tried to sit up and gently pushed her back down again.
"You have to take it easy today, hokages orders." Kakashi said before rising to his feet. "Do you think you feel like having anything to eat or drink?"
Mari winced slightly as she shook her head "I don't think I can stomach anything." She murmured before closing her eyes, she sighed when she felt Kakashi leave the room.
10 minutes later she opened her eyes and sat up slowly as Kakashi re-entered the room. "Here drink some of this, it should help." He said, seeing that her hands were shaking he held the cup to her lips, she smiled slightly when she tasted the slightly sweet tea he had made for her.
"If you feel up to it we can go and meet asuma and kurenai in the jonin lounge later, they said to meet them there if you felt better." Kakashi said looking at her and smiling when he noticed that her hand had stopped shaking as much, he gently rested his hand on her forehead. "You don't have a fever anymore thanks goodness, you scared me last night." He added the last bit as a whisper before gently kissing her on the lips, she sighed slightly as he kissed her before kissing him back. She chuckled softly when she saw his eye widen, before kissing him more passionately than before her eyes closing as she kissed him.
After a while she pulled back panting slightly as she tried to get her breath back. Kakashi smiled at her his mask still down like it always was when they were in the flat on their own together.
He hugged here briefly before kissing her on the cheek and standing up. "Would you like to come to the jonin lounge with me then?" He said softly, knowing that she was feeling as confused as him about what they were both feeling for each other.
"Yeah I'd like that, just let me get dressed." She said softly before slowly getting up from the bed, she was surprised when she didn't stumble.
10 minutes later she came out of the bathroom dressed in a knee length white dress with a blue leaf design at the top, she was wearing a pair of knee length white boots with flat soles and her hair was loose falling to the bottom of her back. "Wow you look amazing." Kakashi said when he saw her before gently taking her arm and they reappeared in the entrance to the jonin lounge to see that kurenai and Asuma were already there. Mari smiled slightly when she saw that they were talking to guy and Genma.
Kurenai's eyes widened slightly when she saw Mari before moving up on her seat and gesturing for her to sit next to her.
"How are you feeling, i heard you had a fever last night?" Genma said smiling at her behind the senbon he had in his mouth.
"I'm feeling better now. Something was affecting my abilities during the first chuunin exam. I could feel a massive amount of hatred and anger coming from one of the genin, I'm not sure who it was but they definitely weren't a normal genin. I have a feeling that something's going to go wrong during this next test." She said softly, she looked away when she saw all of the other jonin looking at her. She smiled slightly when Kakashi took her hand and squeezed it gently helping her to relax.
Genma saw this and looked at Kakashi his eye brows rising slightly; he'd known Kakashi for a long time and had never seen him like that with anyone, he normally kept his emotions to himself.
"I really don't know why I'm getting this feeling. Ibiki already warned Anko that something might happen. I told him about what I had sensed right after the first exams." Mari said before leaning back and closing her eyes for a moment.
Asuma sighed "If only we knew who it was aimed at, at least we'd have a way of trying to stop It." he said exhaling a cloud of smoke.
"If I was close to the forest then I may be able to determine who it is." Mari said softly, she knew that if she focused on the person's thoughts and emotions she would be able to temporarily be in the persons mind. There was however a lot of risk to this.
"How?" Kakashi said his eyes narrowing slightly.
"If I focus enough on the thoughts and emotions of the person I can temporarily place myself in a person's mind, normally without the other person realising I'm there." She said softly. Kakashi and Asuma looked at her as though she was insane "What happens if something goes wrong while you're in the persons mind." Kurenai said softly. Mari nodded "don't worry I wasn't thinking of doing that, it is too dangerous."
She jumped slightly as kitia appeared beside her, "kitia what is it?" she said looking down at her wolf familiar.
"I was in the forest for the second test. It seems that orochimaru as returned to the village my lady, he has put a cursed seal on one of your genin." She said softly before sitting next to Mari. Mari frowned slightly at the look on the other jonin's faces.
"Who is this orochimaru?" she said softly.
"He is one of the legendary sannin and a missing Nin from this village. He became obsessed with the forbidden techniques, even going as far as to experiment on children and adults." Asuma said, they all always forgot that Mari wasn't born in Konoha and didn't know as much about the history as they did. She had been informed of naruto being the kiyuubi host as soon as she had turned jonin by the hokage.
"I knew something was going to happen." Mari murmured as she slumped backwards beside Kakashi and closed her eyes for a moment. "Kitia who? Who did he put the seal on?" she said softly her eyes still closed.
"The dark haired uchiha boy." Kitia said before growling, her hackles rose "If I could I'd rip him apart. Both naruto and Sasuke are unconscious."
Mari sighed slightly before opening her eyes and looking at Kakashi "We can't pull them out of the exams." She murmured softly before getting to her feet. The other jonin looked at her in surprise as she headed towards the door.
"Kitia you know what I'm going to ask you." She said softly looking down at the wolf who nodded before taking off.
Kakashi looked at the other jonin before getting up and following Mari.
"Mari you better not even think about using your abilities with him." He said as he finally caught up with her and put a hand on her arm.
"I'm just worried." She said softly not looking at him as she stopped walking, Kakashi sighed before pulling her into a hug.
"Nothing is going to happen to them. I know they're like family to you, I feel the same way about them." He said softly as he gently stroked her hair.
"Come with me?" she said softly "I want to speak to the hokage."
Kakashi nodded before they both vanished in a swirl of leaves.
Office inside tower-
Mari looked around her wearily as they both appeared inside the office to see Anko and some of the chuunin already there looking at a tape on the TV.
Anko looked around and frowned slightly "hey, what're you two are doing here?" she said.
"It's my fault Anko-san. I heard about orochimaru being here, i wanted to see if i could help." She said softly tensing slightly when she felt another presence come into the room.
"How did you hear about this? What do you think you can do to help?" The hokage said, for the first time since she had arrived he looked suspicious of her.
"I was in the jonin lounge with Kakashi, Asuma, kurenai and Genma when my summons kitia came to us. She told us everything that happened, not only did he put the cursed seal on Sasuke he did something to naruto as well. kitia told us that before she came to me both Sasuke and naruto were unconscious." She said softly looking the hokage in the eye as she spoke. She could feel Anko watching her and knew that the kunoichi didn't trust her.
"I can summon kitia; she's obliged to tell you the truth, that's the way of the wolves." Mari said, before she could say anything else kitia appeared in a cloud of smoke making everyone jump.
"My lady is telling the truth, I was watching over the three genin until a few moments ago. They've just had help defending themselves from an attack by the sound Nin. It seems that the only reason the sound Nin were here was to test the uchiha boy. My brethren and i have been keeping an eye on the genin taking the test. We could feel my lady's worry when she fell ill." Kitia said moving around the room as she spoke obviously restless.
The hokage nodded as he let out another puff of smoke from his pipe. "Thank you kitia, Mari. I'm sorry to doubt you but you left little option when you told us you knew about orochimaru before I'd even talked to Anko about it." he said looking at her closely before turning to Kakashi.
"There's something else. If I focus hard enough i might be able to find out what he plans for Sasuke. Even here i can feel him; He's in this tower somewhere."Mari said closing her eyes for a moment as she reached her mind out, touching on the people in the tower before focusing on the one she sought.
She entered his mind slowly, hoping that he wouldn't notice the intrusion. Seeing some of his plans she gasped slightly before suddenly screaming her eyes opening quickly.
Kakashi took a step forwards and grabbed her arm as she swayed.
"He knows, He has a spy. Someone's told him about my unusual powers. He had a barrier set up against me. He's planning on using Sasuke as his next vessel." She said her words coming out in a rush as she tried to regain control over her emotions.
The hokage looked at her before exhaling a cloud of smoke. "Did you find out anything else?" He said seeing how pale she was he sighed slightly.
"Just a name, Kabuto." She said softly closing her eyes to try and remember everything she had seen. "He was trying to trap my mind in his, hoping to gain information from me."
The hokage's eyes widened at her words.
"I managed to pull back in time. I've put up a strong mental barrier against him, one that he will never break." She said, suddenly releasing that the only reason she was still on her feet was that Kakashi was taking most of her weight.
"It looks like you won't be fit to help out for the rest of the second exam."The hokage said looking at the exhausted jonin in front of him. " I order you to rest for the next few days you can come with Kakashi when the second round is over."
Mari nodded, too exhausted to say anything to him before looking up at Kakashi.
"Come on let's get you home before you collapse." He said softly before bowing his head to the hokage and vanishing.
"Do you really trust her?" Anko said looking at the spot her fellow kunoichi had been standing in.
"Yes. She has already put her life on the line for this village. Now that orochimaru knows about her power she could be a target as well." The hokage said thinking about his former pupil as he looked at Anko.
-Kakashi's apartment-
"I'm sorry." Mari murmured as she sat down on the sofa. "I didn't want to read his mind, it happened when i was looking for the presence i felt during the first exams." She closed her eyes as she rested her head on the back of the sofa to scared to look at Kakashi.
Kakashi perched himself on the arm of the settee next to her and put his hand on her head. "Don't worry about it. We have a few days before the second test is over, until then both of us have the time off." He said smiling slightly when he saw her open her eyes. "We're having another poker night, this time at Asuma's you're more than welcome to come with me." He added.
Mari nodded before wincing slightly "Remind me not to do that." she said smiling at him as she got to her feet."I feel better now, thanks for getting me back here."
"So you feel up to coming with me then?" he said trying to hide the fact that he'd be overjoyed if she did come.
"Yeah, why not I need to take my mind off what I saw." She said softly before heading towards the bathroom "Do you mind if I have a shower first?" she asked him smiling again when he waved for her to go on.
- Half an hour later-
Mari walked out of kakashi's bedroom dressed in a light pink knee length dress with long black boots. Her hair was curly and hung down her back and she was wearing a pale pink eye shadow and lipstick.
Kakashi's eyes widened slightly when he realised that this was the first time he's seen her wearing a colour that wasn't purple or blue. "Wow." He said softly to himself not sure if she heard it or not. "Well let's go then." He added as he led the way out of the door.