It would have been almost a peaceful week if it wasn't for the macabre show that was transmitted for the duration of the first phase, Suigetsu was the only one of our team who really enjoyed the spectacle from start to finish.
From my part, I spent those days doing my patrols around Suna with Karin at my side with the rare occasion of Juugo joining us. If it would have been possible Juugo would have stayed at the apartment alone, but since that couldn't just be a possibility for safety reasons he stayed with Suigetsu.
Suigetsu only complained at the end of the show, no more gore-fest for the audience.
To my surprise Suna gave the aspiring chunins a day to rest so they could start the fight at the stadium with full energy, however that surprise died down when I checked the numbers of remaining genins.
Compared to Konoha's exams, the amount of genin dropouts, including the killed, was a lot more. It could explain why Suigetsu was going every day with such enthusiasm, a brutal kill every day could be quite the show.
So I was present at the start of the final stage, watching the arena with mild interest, my team wandered Suna for whatever they wanted to do, I would not force them to do something if it wasn't important and for who was my current company it was for the best.
Tayuya had several tickets stuffed in her bras and shorts watching with earnest interest in the arena waiting for the first match to start.
I never expected her to be that invested in gambling games, however she wasn't a quiet or the average gambler.
She was the vivid one who cheered and shouted loudly when Temari made her presence at the center of the arena and gave the ceremony speech.
After the speech, Temari gave the signal for the first fighters to enter the arena and two genins jumped off the balcony and walked towards their respective sides.
My eyes caught their insignias, one from Kusa and the other from Ame.
However, before I could get more details, Tayuya shouts interrupted my concentration.
As expected, she was more than a hassle than the good company she boasted she could provide, always inviting herself to our apartment and eating our food. The only reason I tolerated her was because Suigetsu was out doing whatever he wanted so those two didn't bicker or fight and Tayuya always spent time with Karin doing whatever they wanted to do.
Somehow her company could be summed up with pros and cons.
My attention shifted towards the fight that had already started, except with a single glance I could tell how mediocre that fight was.
They were too slow, as if they were walking rather than running, and their movement was very predictable. Like the Ame boy did a lot of fancy moves just to deliver a kick while the Kusa-nin never once tried to exploit the openings or parry the oncoming attacks.
Then the realization hit me.
Each village always tries to sell a show, of course they wouldn't start with the best match ups, so it would be quite a while before Fu's match or the other elites.
Unsurprisingly, the Kusa boy was sent flying, crashing on the ground giving a perfect opening for the other to follow up with an attack unless the Ame boy was close enough the Kusa genin threw a fistful of sand; blinding the other genin.
The Kusa genin shot up from the ground and threw an uppercut strong enough under the chin to knock out his opponent, the genin was thrown up before crashing on the ground head first.
Temari walked up to the downed genin and poked him with her feet twice before calling the match.
A collective cry and cheers erupted from the spectators.
Except from Tayuya, who was silently smashing her head on the railing.
"I should have placed my money on the Kusa shinobi." Tayuya groaned her frustrations, her actions reminded me back at Tanzaku gai and how she lost at the casino.
"How much did you bet?" I asked out of curiosity.
"It was 5 on 2 so I put twenty thousands ryo on Amegakure." She replied with deep regrets about her bad choices as she grabbed a ticket and ripped it apart.
I couldn't hold back my amusement at her disgrace.
"And you call yourself a spymaster?" She should have seen that outcome before even putting that considerable sum of money.
She let out a long sigh and turned to look at me. "Never called myself one, just a disciple of one."
I quickly recalled my memories and didn't remember when she claimed to be a spymaster, so she was right but that didn't excuse her for such shitty decision without prior investigation, better said I highly doubt that all those bets she did had any thought put into it and were only made with the high multiplier in mind.
That way of thinking only breeds problems and large amounts of debt.
So I kept my mouth shut and watched the rest of the mediocre fights one after another while Tayuya only sunk deeper into despair as each fight resulted in more money lost and whenever she had her hopes high in winning at least once her illusion was promptly shattered by 'underhanded' tactics like the first match.
Watching her misery was quite the show, the misery of others fed our sadistic glee. Good thing that Suigetsu wasn't around because I was one hundred percent certain that he would have provoked her to the point to start a big brawl inside the stadium.
My attention returned to the arena for the next match which had already started but when I noticed how slow and mediocre was as the last couple of ones my attention shifted towards the spectators and the surroundings trying to detect anything or find a person of interest.
Temari called for the next candidates and two kunoichi jumped off the balcony.
But I only focused on the kunoichi with olive skin and green short hair, her white midriff and white skirt had a strong contrast with her skin.
Compared to Suna kunoichi, who was almost covered from head to toe, only revealing her long black hair tied in a ponytail, Fu was very exotic.
"And now is the turn of the Jinchuuriki." Tayuya commented before stretching her limbs, couldn't blame her, her bad position could lead to some back pains.
"It is the perfect opportunity to assess her combat abilities." I knew very little of her, but I could copy some useful jutsus from her arsenal.
"Yeaaaaah, about that." She motioned me with her hand to get close enough to whisper to my ear. "Is rigged."
The sudden revelation took aback me. "What?"
She shrugged. "Yup, since Gaara discovered her status, he already prepared the perfect countermeasures."
"How do you know this?"
"I delivered his notification of his implications in this fight."
"Why would he rig the game?"
"The house always wins, Uchiha." She brought up a very well known casino phrase. "Also, a Jinchuuriki is far stronger than an average shinobi, you should know that better than anyone."
Her words brought back my fight against Naruto imbued with the Kyuubi chakra, she was correct to state that as a fact.
I pondered her words for a moment when another realization hit me, there were more reasons for the exams than selling a show.
"So as ever the big fives want to retain their prestige, right?"
A classic of the bigger fish bullying the smaller ones.
"Obviously, why would any of the villages allow the smaller ones to come up top?" She pointed at the arena, "Use your brooding eyes if you are curious."
I closed my eyes for a second before revealing the world with a new perspective."Too many puppeteer's strings."
The arena was practically a spider web ready to catch any unfortunate insect.
I scanned the surrounding areas again and noticed all the strings connected led to a small group of puppeteers spread between the spectators waiting for the match to unfold in their favor.
When Temari gave the signal all those strings moved even closer, creating like a dome around the two combatants.
The Suna kunoichi quickly pulled out a whip which skillfully used to take a hold of Fu's left foot and pulled with enough force to throw her off balance, making her completely vulnerable.
My Sharingan quickly noticed the strings lunged at her like vicious snakes and coiled around her body.
Fu was down and the strings made it very difficult for her to stand up, constantly pulling her down and slowing her that wasted her precious seconds, a situation exploited by her opponent who rushed with her whip to become an improvised set of bindings which was promptly used against Fu.
The new bindings did a quick work to immobilize her and the other strings tightened their grip on her body making it impossible for her to move anymore, giving the appearance that the Suna kunoichi perfectly stopped the jinchuuriki.
Temari waited a couple of seconds before calling the match.
The spectators exploded into a round of applause and cheers.
"Well...the Jinchuuriki is now out." Tayuya shrugged.
For such a powerful shinobi like a jinchuuriki such quick defeat was beyond disappointment, if Shibuki did any marketing or advertising with her as the star then her immediate defeat would be a shattering blow to their reputation.
However, those were trivial matters to me and with Fu out of the exams it meant her time in Suna would come to an premature end and soon would leave the village and walk into an ambush.
I turned to Tayuya for answers. "How informed is Konoha?"
"Haven't you seen the amount of Konoha-nins moving around?" Her rhetorical question made me think about it before understanding that I was a bit distracted to take into account their numbers.
"I'm more focused on other things than prancing around the village." Patrolling the desert and looking for any clue or trace of Deidara was taking most of my attention to bother with minor details.
"Say princess, will you actually fight the Akatsuki alone?" She looked at me questingly.
"What makes you ask that?" I frowned, Tayuya had no way of knowing my specific intentions without a snitch.
She only raised an eyebrow while she crossed both arms. "Are you retarded or intentionally forgetting that I'm the one who is delivering the messages?"
That finally explained where she was getting such crucial information.
"Gaara couldn't keep his mouth shut, could he?" I felt the need to go all the way to his desk and give him a piece of my mind, yet my rationale kept me in place and thought of a better approach to a very delicate situation.
What a constant annoyance, fighting my emotions against my rational way of thought.
However, Tayuya was quick to pick up my internal turmoil. "He didn't exactly mention your name but said that he will assist a bounty hunter in the possible fight."
The clarification helped me in cooling down my anger, however her involvement displeased me. "Don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong, Tayuya. I forgave you once because Karin pleaded with me to not hurt you."
The redhead couldn't contain her rash attitude and grinned. "No need to get all touchy with me Uchiha, I seal my lips for now."
She placed her index finger above her lips and blew a kiss.
My eyebrows scrunched together, her antics never stopped no matter the situation. "You better be."
I turned around and left her side, with the Jinchuuriki match now over there wasn't any other reason to stay for the last matches.
"Where are you going?"
"To patrol the outskirts." I didn't skip a single day since our arrival and there were no exceptions, however I would not ask Karin or Juugo to accompany me since I wanted some time for myself to think and wander my mind.
"Don't get bit by a snake." She joked.
I ignored her last snide remark and left her side going down the stairs and headed towards the main exit, the crowd never stopped their chorus cheers.
Like I did many days ago I jumped towards the nearest roof and made haste towards the outskirts to begin my pseudo-duty, occasionally a couple of glances were directed at me by Suna shinobi but quickly averted their curiosity as they knew I had permission.
I could barely see the silhouette of the village, which was an enough sign for me to start my patrol.
And as expected from a desert ahead it was a dull landscape with the endless seas of sand around me, I pulled out a pair of goggles to protect my eyes from the pesky sand; the first days were enough for me to learn the lesson.
I didn't have a watch on me, leaving the sun as the only indicator of time.
The sun was midway to reach the horizon and till that moment nothing of interest happened, just like it had been with the other days of patrolling.
Yet that would not last for long, I felt a slight change in the wind.
I stopped in my tracks and took a deep breath before looking back. "Why are you here?"
Where nobody used to be now Tayuya was standing in that place with both arms behind her back. "I lost all of my money after you left."
"You have as much shitty luck than Tsunade."
"No, the saggy hag always loses while I have my good and bad days, is different."
The few times I had seen her gambling always resulted in her loss tho.
"Whatever you say." I opted to don't argue with her since she had a lot of pride in admitting a mistake and moved on, and I needed to do one last round before calling a job well done.
Tayuya became my unexpected partner for the rest of my patrol, except she was silent, which was very odd knowing with the few interactions we had.
But that didn't last long as my ears were...graced by a long soothing melody.
I turned to find Tayuya playing a wooden flute with closed eyes, yet her fingers were perfectly playing the notes of her song.
Any other time I would have silently accepted and even welcomed her abilities to play the flute, but as sure as hell that it wasn't the time, forcing my hand to grab and snatch her instrument. "Do you think is the best time to play music?"
She slowly looked up to my eyes while not showing any sign of expression. "Yes, and you just proved how retarded can you get."
She reached my limit, the emotions ignited my eyes as my vision became red.
With her own instrument, I pointed at her neck and applied pressure. "Keep talking, I dare you."
"Ooooh the Sharingan, scaaaaary." With a single finger, she tauntingly pushed her instrument away.
She was getting more cheeky with me.
But I too was becoming rather emotional to even allow such weak insults to actually push my buttons, perhaps the lack of meditation in the last couple of days was influencing me.
The time I glared daggers at her without saying a word also gave me time to think more clearly.
"Let me guess by playing the flute, you create a sound perimeter that allows you to detect anything within a certain range."
Tayuya raised a single eyebrow. "Congratulations, you are no longer retarded."
I simply returned her flute, which she happily took and rubbed it on her bras for a quick cleaning. "No wonder why Suigetsu, despite his antics, is much better company, he knows when to keep his mouth shut."
She only shrugged at my comment.
"I'm not him." With that said, she closed her eyes and resumed her music, which was no longer soothing but more like alive and joyous.
I could compare it to that background music for an adventure.
My Sharingan analyzed with detail the flow of chakra that she produced and how it spread to all directions, it was a very interesting technique and useful as well except that it paled compared to Karin sensory abilities which could detect anybody from kilometers away and assess their overall strength.
But learning more about the battle instrument would be beneficial in the long run, who knew how many other shinobis were out there, who had the same or even better abilities than the cheeky redhead?
"By the way...use protection." She suddenly spoke just as the music stopped.
Her words made me stop dead in my tracks and slowly turn to look at her with wide eyes. "Excuse me?"
With an unwavering blank expression, she maintained her eye contact with me. "You are lucky that Karin always carries her pills on her, but seriously fucking use protection."
"Do you even think this is a place to say things like that?" I couldn't fathom how she could so casually speak about such matters, it was difficult to maintain my straight face.
"Honestly?" She slowly placed her flute behind her back somewhere, never breaking eye contact with me. "Yeah, this isn't to fuck with you but as a warning."
"What do you mean?"
Her head tilted to the right. "What do you think will happen if you knock her up?"
Her direct question caused my heart to skip a beat while my blood froze me on the spot, yet I maintained my blank face as she patiently waited for me to say something but when she was sure that I wouldn't reply she let out a long sighed.
"Well, we can start with the fact that every single village will send hunting squads, the Uchiha bloodline is the biggest and most addictive drug in the shinobi world after all." She pointed an accusatory finger at me. "And an unending stream of squads will be sent against you to get her."
I could only look at her. "Your point?"
Tayuya's calm face contorted into a deep frown. "I already told you Uchiha, I'm not doing this as a favor to you but because Karin is my friend and I would hate to see her getting hurt."
I turned around and walked away from her, creating a distance between us. "It's a headache to speak with you."
All that new influx of information was overcharging my head, so many things in my head, and I allowed something so small but important to slip up for my conflicted way of thoughts.
She caught up with me and stood in front of me with her shit-eating grin. "You're welcome."
Only then she pulled out again her flute and brought it closer to her lips and the adventurous melody from before resumed.
We spent the rest of the time in complete silence, we didn't utter a single word to each other but she kept playing her flute without stopping.
"No strange sightings." I commented.
Tayuya kicked the sand under her feet. "Not a surprise, the desert a dull place." She turned to look at me with a sweet innocent smile, totally unbecoming from her. "Say, can I go eat dinner with you all?"
"Choke on your food pills." I immediately shot down her idea.
"You perfectly know how shit they taste, so fuck you."
"I won't allow a freeloader munching away my resources." I replied.
The redhead exasperatedly crossed her arms. "And yet you are ridiculously rich to even bother with that amount."
"Not my problem that you blew away your money in gambling." I retorted.
Tayuya's frown softened as a cheeky grin creeped on her face. "Why bother with you? I will just ask Karin for some, anyway."
"I hope you choke on it."
And she flipped me off without bother to face me, in mere seconds her figure disappeared from my vision as a cloud of sand was lifted hiding her movements and direction to where she took off.
It worked well with me since I was done with her company, however unlike her I took my time to return to Suna. All the information she dumped on me needed time to process and understand, especially the part about Karin.
I had to admit that only once that idea crossed my mind but was stupidly ignored as I didn't want to attract bad karma to myself.
My liberties would have bitten me back in the ass if I hadn't been explicitly warned.
Since the exams were essentially over for me I decided to stroll around the village streets and since the sun was touching the horizon, the night life just began with the streets beaming with life.
I was the only one who stood out from the crowd, since I was still with the same attire covering most of my features.
But I only received a couple of curious looks before all of them returned to their own business.
Watching people interact on the streets and show many levels of emotions pulled me back in a trip of nostalgia, when things were different and less complicated.
A personal trip basked with nostalgia, mine and his.
Yet my moment was interrupted when my eyes caught within the endless crowd, sight of a blonde woman carrying a bag between her arms.
Who happened to almost crash against me.
Thankfully, we both stopped just in time and stared at each other with wide eyes.
Despite her long hair covered half of her face, her facial features were distinguishable enough to discern a single person from my memories.
"Ino?"
Her eyes widened in surprise as she took one step back slightly, covering her face with the bag she was carrying. "Ummmm...Do...I know you?"
I was quick to realize my terrible mistake; I was hiding all my features, becoming a total stranger I had no reason to know a girl like her to begin with. "No, my apologies. I must have confused you with another person."
I bowed and moved aside, giving her a free pass.
She gave me a faint smile.
"Oh... no problem... it happens." She hurriedly went her on way, leaving me behind like a statue.
That was definitely Ino Yamanaka, yet that wasn't the Ino I remember or knew in both senses. The original Ino would wear very revealing clothes, not as much as Tayuya, since she was proud of her body but that Ino was wearing lavender saggy clothes leaving almost nothing to the imagination and looked the shy type.
A complete 180° turn of personalities.
I needed answers.