Hana comes to training complaining about how Kakashi keeps escaping the hospital when, "Clearly, he's not healthy enough to be on his own! He nearly died from chakra exhaustion!" She fumes throughout training as Ryu-Sensei grumbles something that sounds suspiciously like "typical." Itachi, who has the patience of a saint, lets her rant to him.

A week later, I wake to a loud, incessant tapping on my window. I flop over to glare out of said window, and fuck, it's still dark out. The tapping gets louder. I groan and stumble out of bed in the general direction of my window. Sawagi, the opportunistic ass, took my spot trying to leach the body heat from my pillow.

I open my window, then a blur of black and white sweeps past me. I jerk back in surprise as ANBU Hawk, the ANBU I'm fairly sure is Ryu-Sensei, lands inside my room. Ah, this is about that note I left for Ryu-Sensei.

Hawk throws a bundle of cloth at my face. "Be at the Leafy Dragon Tea House in an hour," he informs gruffly. Then he's gone again.

I stare incomprehensibly at the bundle of black fabric for a moment, then I unwrap it. It's the standard ANBU uniform, except, well, the mask. Instead of a vague portrayal of an animal, it's just two eye holes and the ceramic being a truly obnoxious shade of pink. Ryu-Sensei, I decide, is responsible for this travesty.

I sigh, then turn longingly toward my bed, and start getting dressed. The black tank top looked like it was supposed to be skin tight, but apparently ANBU wasn't used to five foot nothing 14 year olds being inducted. I was in the same boat with the chest plate. Luckily, the pants and gloves fit decently and I substituted the oversized arm guards with my own.

Finally, with the last piece of equipment left to put on was the bright pink mask, I pull my hair up into a bun. I shoot a baleful look at the monstrosity I'm supposed to put on my face, then sigh. I reluctantly slip the mask onto my face.

Now where's the Leafy Dragon Tea House? I have the sinking suspicion that this is going to be my Genin Exam taken way to seriously.

I stick to the shadows as I run through the village, pink mask doing all it can to hinder my sneakiness. I'm not quite sure when the ANBU testing starts, but there's a distinct possibility that it already has. I wouldn't put it past ANBU to pick off initiates and make sure they don't get to the Leafy Dragon.

Of course, I muse, that it won't matter if I stay unhindered if I can't find the damn place.

I see a flash of white and I duck behind a corner and pull shadows around me. An ANBU with a frog mask drops down in front of me. I barely keep myself from tensing as their masked face moves closer to me. Apparently, hiding in solid shadows is more effective than I thought, because they move on after a couple minutes of searching.

Fuck it, I decide, and summon Rai, Sawagi, and Arashi. "Can you three do me a solid and find the Leafy Dragon Tea House?" I whisper.

Rai, face scrunched up in an attempt not to laugh at my mask, nods. "Sawagi can come with me," she offers.

I exhale a breath in relief, "Thanks." They take off in separate directions and I duck between two buildings as an initiate wearing a bright teal mask hops down from a roof. The mask colors at this point are just getting ridiculous. They're a couple inches taller than me, but just as thin. If it came down to it I could probably take them.

Teal slips into an ally opposite of mine before Hound, (cough, Kakashi, cough) jumps down after them. I hurriedly channel chakra to climb a wall to get onto the rooftops before Hound decides he wants to give me a hard time. And, knowing Kakashi, as soon as he catches my scent, he totally would.

I climb the slope of the roof and jump down a chimney, stopping myself halfway down. Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas, the half hysterical thought runs through my mind. Also, the Land of Fire rarely gets below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Who the hell has a fireplace?

A soft patter of feet above me alerts me to someone's presence. "Yoruka," Arashi calls down, "I found it, so you can come out of the chimney."

I quickly channel chakra to my hands and feet and climb the side of the chimney like a lizard. Ducking over the side of the chimney, I catch sight of a flash of teal. Teal lands beside me on the roof. "Mind letting me follow you to the Leafy Dragon?" A feminine voice whispers.

"Do whatever you want," I whisper back as I motion for Arashi to get going.

We follow Arashi toward the village center, ducking ANBU Agents all the while. Teal expresses her appreciation of me being able to manipulate the shadows around us by providing running commentary of each agent we almost run into and their abilities. Teal, I realize, is very good at information gathering.

We arrive at a nondescript building with a green roof close to the Hokage Tower. Rai and Sawagi are already there and unsummon as soon as they see me. Arashi gives a small nod before doing the same.

Teal and I slip through a small window at the back of the building that leads to a storage room. We slip into the main part of the tea house. "Congratulations," a deep voice echos from around the room. "Teal and Hot Pink pass the first stage of ANBU Initiation!"