Karin could not run fast enough.

The chunin exam had been a huge eye opener for Karin. She and the rest of her team had passed the written exam well enough, her chakra sensing technique being precise enough to allow her to imitate the writing movements of those around her, and a simple tap code delivered by her pencil eraser made do for the other two.

Then the tenth question happened, negating all of their hard work, and the exam went downhill from there. The forest was filled with deadly creatures. Her team had been ambushed, she still did not know from what or who, and she had fled into the forest, scattering as they had planned. But unlike the plan, the pressure never let up, and she never got a chance to get her bearings.

When she managed to escape the ambush, she holed up in a hollowed tree stump, only to find herself in the midst of a large spider web, with several spiders the size of her hand and almost certainly venomous jumping, not crawling, jumping at her. She had jumped herself, straight out of the stump and into the path of a rather large tiger. In fleeing the tiger, she took to the trees, only to discover that one of the local species of leeches actually lived at that height. And then, having jumped back to the ground as fast and as far as she could get, she had landed almost directly on top of a bear.

I'm a medic, ran the refrain in her mind as she jumped fallen logs and dove under low hanging branches, skidding in the mud trying to escape the bear that was lumbering after her with the slow patience of a predator who knew they could outrun you, eventually. I'm a medic, she thought, tossing a quick kunai at the bear and watching it hit with a light thump, barely nicking its thick skin. I'm a medic, I'm a medic, I'm a MEDIC!

Then it happened. Her sandals skidded out from under her on the bed of leaves and mud she was crossing, and she fell face first into the dirt, skidding slightly until she fetched up against a tree. She grabbed her jaw with a whimper, worried it might be broken, until the shadow fell across her. She turned and stared.

The bear was inches from her, its breath hot on her face, saliva dripping everywhere as it growled at her. It snapped once at her, then slid back, away from her face, as more and more orange clad kids piled on and pushed. She watched the beast swipe one of the kids, smashing a kid so hard it vanished, but the others just shouted, and more continued to flow from the woodlands into the giant bear wrestling match. The bear continued to lash out, but with each blow, it grew more and more confused, put off by the lack of dead orange humans.

"You have a scroll," said a dull, monotone voice beside her, very close beside her, and Karin jumped slightly in shock and turned to gape at the boy standing next to her, as if there was not a giant beast losing a wrestling match to a lot of identical boys only a few feet in front of him. He was wearing a white shirt, the collar pulled up to cover much of his face, and his sunglasses made it impossible to see if he was looking at the bear.. or her. "I know you have a scroll. Why? Because I bugged you a day ago, or more appropriately, I bugged your scroll. My friend and I will save you from the bear, and help you find your team… if you give us the scroll." He turned his head slightly, clearly indicating that he was looking at her, and stared at her, motionless, as if he was perfectly content to remain in that pose until she answered.

She could hear the bear sliding along the ground, pushed back by the tide of orange. She could hear the blonds shouting instructions and encouragement to themselves, status updates, tips on how to lift the creature's legs. But she could not lift her gaze to watch, enraptured as she was by that blank, patient stare. She felt her cheeks start to heat slightly under his scrutiny, but he did not react to her glow.

He's… so… cool…

She fumbled with her belt pouch until she found the scroll and held it out to the boy, who took it gently, so gently, from her hand and looked it over. He then tucked it into a pocket and pointed to one side. "Your team is ten minutes away, in that direction, hiding in a cave. My friend has guards around them, as well as some along the way to keep the local wildlife in check. Go now."

She nodded and stood, ready to leap, but unwilling to leave without one thing, one very important thing. She turned back and faced the boy, her eyes wide, desperately fighting the blush on her face. "What's your name," she asked, her voice quiet.

The boy adjusted his glasses slightly, his eyebrows appearing above the frames for just a moment, and she swore his face turned a slight shade redder. "I am Aburame Shino," he said in the same dull tone. "And you have twelve minutes. Go now."

Karin nodded once and jumped into the forest. She barely noticed the long line of blond boys, no more than a dozen meters between each, that she followed to her team. She did not think on her close brush with death, or the fear of failure on the exam, or what her teammates would think about her trading the scroll away for protection. All she could think of was that boy…

Sakura sat next to Ino's still form and watched the girl sleep.

Sasuke had managed to get some rest. While he had a slight fever, and his eyes were still losing focus from time to time, he was at least mobile enough to get out of the forest with some help. Sakura knew very little on the human body, but he had no symptoms of illness beyond those two things, and his eyes were improving even as time went by. All in all, the group agreed he was lucky, very lucky, and everyone was glad to let it go until they got out of the forest.

Everyone but Ino.

Everyone had tried to talk to her. Shikamaru had tried to explain to her that the genjutsu she had been under was beyond the skills of anyone there, and had been designed to incapacitate people of their level. Lee had proclaimed that the trials of youth had no limits, and that she must rise to overcome. Even Sasuke had bit down on the chillier parts of his personality and had explained, in no uncertain terms, that it was not her fault.

In the end, nothing worked on her. She remained where she was, curled into a ball, refusing to eat or drink. Sakura was not a medic, but every shinobi was given basic survival training, and she knew the Rule of Three.

Three minutes without air.
Three days without water.
Three weeks without food.

Ino was on her second day without water, and that was not counting however long she had gone without before being captured. Shinobi tended to be a little more resilient than civilians, but if she was not already in severe pain, she would be soon. And still, she lay there.

Sakura sighed to herself and looked at Shikamaru, who nodded from his post near the entrance. They'd had a talk, and Shikamaru had made a few suggestions to her. He had some ideas how to wake her up, but most of them would work best with Sakura, her best friend and greatest antagonist. He grunted and stood, stretching slightly, then walked out of the cave to join the others, leaving the two girls alone.

Sakura pulled out a canteen, held it out, and casually dropped it on Ino's head. It hit with a solid thump, filled as it was with water, and Sakura heard Ino grunt. "I know you're busy trying to die and all," said Sakura casually, leaning back against the wall of the cave, "but we need to have a talk, and you need to have a drink." When Ino did not reply, Sakura leaned over and nudged her. "I got the okay from your team to incapacitate you and water you by force. Drink and talk, or I will. No joke."

Ino curled up further. Sakura took it as a stubborn refusal, and was preparing herself mentally to do just as she promised, but she heard the sound of Ino's voice, just on the edge of hearing. She leaned in quietly, and she heard it again. "I'm pathetic," the blond girl whispered.

Sakura nodded agreeably. "You are," she admitted cheerfully. Ino mumbled to herself, quiet enough that Sakura missed the words, but they didn't really matter. "No," she said clearly, her voice still sweet, "You are pathetic, but it's not because of that." Ino mumbled again, and Sakura nodded to herself, even if she could not hear the words any more. "Nope, not that either. You're pathetic because of what you are doing, here, now, not yesterday."

Ino froze, not ever breathing, then slowly pulled herself off of the dirt and turned to glare at Sakura, who gave her a cheerful wave. "Yes, it's me. Good old Forehead, giving you grief. Drink some water, and you can rant at me all you want. But not until you drink."

Ino sagged slightly, then reached out with trembling hands and picked up the canteen. She brought it to her lips and sipped carefully at it, drinking slowly, giving her body time to adjust to the fluids. A few times, she had to pause to settle her stomach, but she drank the full canteen eventually. She did not object when Sakura pulled out a second canteen and some ration bars for her to use.

"Sasuke lost his clan as a kid. He does not talk about it much, and I don't blame him, but it must have been horrific. Naruto has no family, and I think he had very few friends and a lot of enemies while growing up. Lee can barely use chakra. Neji is Neji, he can't be that hung up on fate without something tragic from the past." Sakura shrugged and closed her eyes, resting against the cave wall. "And there's me, number one at being useless in the real world. You would not believe how I felt when it was pointed out to me how worthless I was as a shinobi… I take that back, you, of all people, might believe it now."

"What changed," asked Ino quietly, her voice rough from days of no water and no words.

Sakura shrugged again, her shoulders scraping against the rock. "Same as the rest of them. I decided to do something about it. I found someone willing to teach me, several someones over time, and I worked and worked until it paid off. When you fall on your face, you have two choices. Pick yourself up, or eat dirt." She smiled. "I found the taste of dirt unappealing, so I stood up and kept going."

Ino and Sakura sat quietly, no sound but their quiet breathing and the occasional crinkle of a ration bar being unwrapped. Eventually even that sound stopped, and Sakura opened her eyes to see Ino kneeling in front of her, staring at her with an intensity she'd never seen before. Her face was haggard and tight, her eyes sunken. She was covered in dirt and filth from the last few days. But her eyes shone with an inner light, and her gaze was focused and sharp.

"Teach me," she said.

Sakura sighed and shook her head. She heard Ino gasp, so she raised her hand to forestall and complaints. "I have no idea how to teach, Ino. My own style is a mash of styles and skills and techniques from many sources, and most of them from my own studies and experiments. Some day, I might teach it to others, but it has to be finished first, and that assumes it suits you. You need someone to start you from the ground up, physical conditioning, basic katas, someone capable of teaching."

Sakura smirked and leaned over to whisper in Ino's ear the name she and Shikamaru had picked out earlier, the one most likely to be able to help her get into fighting form. For a moment, Ino's eyes widened in worry… but the worry faded, to be replaced with determination.

"As soon as we're out of this forest," Ino said. Sakura gave her a pat on the back and smiled at her friend and rival, a genuine smile. I wonder, she thought as she watched Ino dig into another ration bar, is this what Kakashi-sensei feels like all the time?

It was a bedraggled and sorry group that trudged to the tower entrance some hours later.

Sasuke could see, and even use his sharingan without any discomfort, but his body still ached from the night before, and he was leery about using his chakra for any but the most vital task, so he jogged out of the forest, without using chakra to speed his movements, all five kilometers, a tough run on a good day without chakra, never mind with his pain. But he pushed on, and managed a small smile when the tower became visible.

Ino matched him, step for step, stopping only a few times to either take a sip of water or, after one rough patch, to empty her guts into the bushes. She was shaking by the time she could see the tower, exhausted on a level she had never experienced before, her mind and body worn until both were numbed by her exhaustion. Naruto had offered to carry her exactly once, and his nose still had flakes of blood from when she had hit him.

Naruto and Sakura could not keep their eyes from darting between Sasuke and Ino, watching both carefully, their worry plain upon their face. Shikamaru had told them to do so, and when they objected, he pointed out that with two byakugan users in their group, additional eyes were not needed. He also pointed out that he knew they'd both be watching them anyhow, so trying to get them to focus on anything else would be troublesome.

The moment they saw the tower, Lee was running for it, screaming the word 'youth' as loud as he could, one long shout that lasted all the way to the tower. Neji scoffed at the display, and like the rest, he paced Sasuke and Ino until they arrived as a group.

"Lee," said Naruto quietly as they entered, "Why did you run off like that? It could have been dangerous if someone was waiting in ambush."

Lee gave Naruto a brilliant smile, and raised his voice slightly as he answered, making sure that everyone could hear. "That is so, Naruto-san, and that is why I did it. Out of the entire team, I was the least tired of those not on watch or escort duty. If there was an ambush, who better to draw their attention for the first assault then myself?"

One of Neji's eyebrow twitched slightly, and he managed a small, cruel smile. "And if their was an ambush," he said casually, "then you could impress Haruno-san with your skills, right?"

Lee frowned and shook his head. "Sakura-san has made her opinion clear on the matter. There is no need to impress her." The entire group froze, a few of them carefully looking around, worried he was an imposter, but Tenten raised her hand in a waiting gesture, then crossed his arms and waited herself. After a moment, Lee continued, his voice raising as he said,"I may not be the man she will date, but I have already impressed her with the power of my youth! Besides, what if one of the ambush party fell for her beauty and decided to ask her out? I would be obliged to fight them then!"

Tenten nodded, and the group let out a sigh before entering the tower. Inside, they found a sign telling them, in a long and round-about manner, to open both scrolls. Naruto and Sakura pulled out their set and opened them, revealing a seal used for summoning, which immediately began to smoke. They set the scrolls down and backed away quickly.

When Iruka stepped out of the smoke, Naruto felt a sudden moment of nostalgia. He rarely got to see Iruka, between training and missions with Kakashi, and he suddenly felt a pang of loss that he'd not hung out with his teacher, his first true support and friend, in a long time. Then Iruka reached out and laid his hand on Naruto's shoulder, and the two looked at each other, and in that moment, Naruto realized his old teacher understood. I wonder, thought Naruto, if this is what Iruka feels all the time.

"Congratulations, Konoha teams," said Iruka with an easy smile. He went to each team, collecting their scrolls, before returning to stand before them. "I am proud to see you all have made it, and more so that you chose to work together. Teamwork is important, but so is remembering that we're all part of one great team, the village Konohagakure. Is anyone injured?"

Every person in the room turned to Sasuke, who nodded. "I've been bitten by someone called Orochimaru, and they left some kind of seal on my neck." He met Iruka's horrified gaze with one of confusion and rising concern. "Why do you look so worried?"

It took only five minutes to assemble those who needed to be informed. Sasuke had been quickly ushered into a small waiting room and given food and water. Within a single minute, Kakashi had arrived, and was looking at Sasuke's neck with both eyes revealed. The very fact that he had his sharingan visible made Sasuke feel a small, cold knot of fear form in his chest, but he smothered it and waited patiently.

Two minutes later, the proctor for the second exam, Anko, showed up. She nodded to Kakashi, with a degree of familiarity that the genin took note of. She then pulled Sasuke's head to one side roughly, took a quick look at the seal, and then retreated to a corner and started fidgeting with a kunai.

One minute after that, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage and leader of the Hidden Village of the Leaf himself, walked briskly into the room. Sasuke gaped at his entrance, because Hiruzen came not in his normal robes of office, but in his battle gear, a black body suit, unadorned of any decorative quality, with only a single metal arm guard and a thickly armored hood. He strode into the room not with grace, but with power, certain and unstoppable, and for the first time, Sasuke got a glimpse of the man who carried Konohagakue through the last two Shinobi World Wars.

He strode up and gently rested his hand on the boy's head, pulling back his hair slightly to look at the seal. He then stepped back and nodded to Sasuke, a brief flash of the kindly old man he had become over time, before his face turned back to the stern leader he had always been as he looked at the two older shinobi in the room. "Kakashi, opinion," he said, a curt order to be obeyed.

Kakashi nodded, and when he spoke, his tone was as serious as the Hokage's. "It matches much of what we know of Orochimaru's Cursed Seal program from before. Sasuke reported that the man cornered him and worked to convince him not to resist, then stretched his neck out and bit him, exactly where the seal is now. He also reported having requiring almost a full day of rest before becoming mobile. He has not used chakra since he regained control of his body and chakra system, and I have advised him to continue to do so until we came to a conclusion."

Hiruzen nodded and turned to Anko.

"It's different," she said without preamble. She reached up and pulled down the collar of her trench coat, revealing the seal on her own neck for inspection. She then walked over and pulled up Sasuke's hair. "The seal has four tomoe marks, as opposed to my three, and they face the opposite direction. Further, the tails are longer, forming almost a complete circle around the seal."

"Can we remove or seal this mark," Hiruzen asked.

Kakashi paused for a moment, then shook his head. "Maybe," he said, his tone growing darker. "Without knowing more on what it does and how it works, sealing it may do Sasuke more harm then good. He mentioned having physical control issues as well as chakra control issues while the seal was settling. Both imply the seal was affecting him on a physical level, not just through his chakra, but through his body itself. Further, I am not an expert at seals, and I know of no technique to use safely against this."

Hiruzen nodded. "Solutions?"

Anko spoke up first. "Seal his chakra off completely." When Sasuke whirled to glare at her,she raised her hands in a placating manner. "Temporarily. We can recall Jiraiya, get his opinion. With any luck, he'll be able to seal this away. We still only have a rough idea what the thing does to me, and I don't like the idea of one of our genin running around with an unknown seal ready to activate."

Kakashi shook his head. "Orochimaru is known for his subtlety, and he's always had an interest in bloodlines for his… research. I would not be surprised if this was meant to do nothing more than to drive Sasuke away from us by forcing us to crush his dreams out of fear of the unknown. I think we should at least have a Hyuga observe him through a few tests to see if he's safely functional and go from there."

Hiruzen nodded, then turned his eyes to Sasuke. His features softened for just a moment, and in a gentle voice, he said, "Opinion?"

Sasuke wanted to shout, scream, for his right to continue to be a shinobi, to grow and train, to gain the strength to avenge his clan. He wanted to threaten to leave if they tried to seal him. He wanted to roar his defiance. But in the face of the Hokage's gentle words and fond gaze, his burning passion crumbled. Bereft of his anger, Sasuke took the time to look at his situation with cold logic. It took him a full minute to puzzle through his options, and in that time, nobody talked or pushed for him to hurry.

"I do not wish to give up before I've really begun," he said quietly. "I have much to do in the future, and most of it requires me to be here, with my team and village. The risk of death or injury will not deter me. That said, making myself a risk to my team and village would be far worse, because if I cannot do what I must, who else would it fall to?" Sasuke took a deep, calming breath, and let his anger and pride out with the same exhalation. As painful as it was to admit his potential weakness in the face of what happened, no amount of fury would solve his problem. Kakashi had taught him, long ago and with great care, that one cannot power through challenges with nothing but fury alone. "I will do whatever tests you see fit. Should the seal be a danger, to myself or to others, we will do what we must to contain that danger. Even if it means the end of my life."

He sighed to himself and closed his eyes. Failure hurts, Kakashi had once said to him, after a particularly bad day of training, but true success can hurt a lot more. As much as it hurt, he had to face the chance that his dreams, his vengeance, would be crushed, but if he must, he would face it with pride worthy of any Uchiha. If he could not honor them with vengeance, he would honor them by accepting his burden with his head held high. He straightened and opened his eyes, to see the three adults looking at him, and for a moment, he saw the pride in their eyes at his strength.

In the glow of their understanding and pride, as he looked up at his leader and his teacher, he found a balm for the pain of his loss. I wonder, he thought, if this is what the Hokage feels like all the time?

Author's Note: For those who were paying attention, my update is ahead of schedule. I was forced to hold off on my medication for a week, and managed to get this done before I started it. Again, assume no updates for a few weeks.

Next chapter will detail the start of the preliminaries, as well as possibly going over how the seal works and Ino's plans for the future. I am unsure how I want to handle all that just yet, structurally.

I personally thank each of you who posted for the highly amusing and positive reactions to the last omake. It makes me proud that I delivered such an obvious joke in a manner that made my audience laugh and feel the urge to comment on it in reviews. Made my week, I can tell you.

Finally, before I get the PM's... no, KarinShino is not a thing, just like there are no other pairing in this story as of yet. So shhhhhhhh.

Quinn1989: The term for the Russian "doll within a doll" design is "matryoshka", and that was exactly what I was going for when I wrote that omake. When i was figuring out the punchline for the whole thing, that mental image popped into my head, and amused me enough to go for it.

SamusOlderBrother: I point out that Ino, as well as almost every other young character in the original series, acts extremely childish in canon. The amount of trouble they could have saved themselves by simply not acting like arrogant idiots is astounding, although it is also a part of the charm of the series, in my opinion.

Alley McNally: If I bother to do any sort of pairings in the future, you can assume at this point Kakashi and Anko will be in there somewhere. Even if I do not do pairings, you can assume it for yourself. Amongst other things, my version of the two is a great deal of fun to write.

fluffpenguin: Regarding family techniques, I am assuming that the real reason nobody else uses them is to keep character power sets distinct, and in the process of writing this, I am finding I agree with that premise. If I let Lee train everyone in his brand of taijutsu, then he's no longer the taijutsu guy, he's just a taijutsu guy. As for chapter speed, I see what you mean now, and yeah, I try to avoid that level of foot dragging. It comes down to the most basic of storytelling technique: If this is not important to the plot or character, why would I bother showing it? An example of this can be seen in the above chapter. I could have detailed the reactions of every last one of the Konoha group when Lee ran forward, which would have padded my word count a great deal, but would also do nothing for the story itself (I actually went back and removed some of those reactions for that very reason). Finally, fear not, Ibiki will be back in due time. I intend to give every worthwhile character some degree of limelight in this story, and he fits into my variant of the world quite well.

EVA-Saiyajin: Honestly, while in the real world, the smoke bomb can be a useful tool, in the Naruto setting, it seems to be almost never used. In the series, many techniques produce smoke when disrupted, which the characters often use for cover, but rarely do they use a non-chakra device for that purpose. Sasuke might have passing knowledge of them in canon, but I would not call it familiarity.

Dalumbrhack: I understand people leaning away slightly whenever Naruto ends up with a sword, and in truth, I generally agree. Most of the time, when I see it, I can safely assume that the story is going to go from interesting tactics to up front sword fighting. I'll tell you (and anyone who bothers to read this) a secret: The reason that Naruto has swords is partially revealed in the Moonflower chapter. I think, when I make that reason overt once he gets into a solo fight, I shall have a lot of immensely relieved readers.

As for jutsu, they all will gain something new during the mid-exam break, even those who flunk (Ahh, but who? That is the mystery. And if I flunk Sakura, I suspect you lot will kill me. What fun.) This will take some research I think, as I prefer not to make up powers in a setting that has plenty available.

Finally, thank you SO much for giving me details on a significant error in my writing. Details makes it much easier to find and fix. If anyone else spots such things, please, feel free to tell me, via PM if you don't want to review.

And as always, Cute Kirby, thanks for the observation. I looked up the difference, and facepalmed. I have not gone back to fix that yet, but intend to do so in due time. Thanks again!