Gaara stared at the two interlopers. He was vaguely certain that the two had been in the Exams, though he barely remembered the girl. She clearly hadn't impressed him, not that many people did. They just weren't real; they could die at any whim of Fate, and thus didn't really exist in the same way he did.

The boy with the yellow hair was a little more familiar, as something about him bothered Apophis, but still he hadn't done more than shout and fight and care about something silly like passing an Exam when nothing but your Rank was at stake. Gaara truly couldn't understand such a mentality, and had no real interest in trying.

He did deign to answer the two.

"I was planning to kill this person," he responded to Naruto's question with no emotion whatsoever. His tone matched that of someone describing the weather.

It threw them off, because of course it did. They either predicted him to be sneaky and embarrassed about it, or arrogant and angry while trying to intimidate them. Foolish. Why would he waste such energy on that? On them? He supposed that they were going to cause problems for him now, unfortunately, so he dispelled the snake-finger and stared at them.

"But…why?" The girl with the pink hair asked.

A lot of his victims asked that, if they weren't too terrified or desperately trying to be 'brave' and 'defiant' in their last moments. He had never really cared to answer, but now, deprived of an outlet for his bloodlust, staring at these two unnerved Scions, he felt like talking about himself, explaining himself.

To be clear, he didn't expect them to understand anything, as they were fake people, but just discussing the truth of reality as he saw it was occasionally cathartic.

"To prove that I exist."

As expected, they were completely lost.

"When I was born, my mother volunteered to do a great service for the Village, to capture Apophis, the great Titan Lord who occasionally roused himself to cause earthquakes in the Land of Resurrections, and place him inside her own child."

The blonde boy winced, like there was something familiar about this. Well, Gaara's suspicions must have been accurate then.

"I'm told that I killed her as an infant. I have no memory of this, so she must not have existed."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto shouted in response, both frustrated and genuinely confused.

"Yeah," the pink-haired girl agreed with him, "don't Mummies interact with the dead all the time?"

"The Mummies walk on a shattered plain of death, and call it spiritual enlightenment, but their own souls were broken a long time ago. Being reborn into another being, combining the Second Life's memories with the First Life's values, a Mummy's existence is the single greatest mockery of the idea of finding meaning in the afterlife there is. Trying to discuss that with them, however, is worthless. They think that they can prove their existence through finding balance in this world, but really all they find is death. That which can die is worthless, while that which can control death is all. I choose who lives and dies, I can control death, and I won't die. I exist."

--

Nothing Gaara was saying made sense to Naruto. Rather than make him feel stupid, it made him feel that what he was saying didn't make sense at all.

He's like me, the boy thought in spite of that senselessness. Another Gatekeeper, another child turned into an experiment by a Village and then cast aside by that same Village. Another child who forgot he was human. Well, close enough.

When facing Haku, Naruto had wondered whether or not he might have ended up like the boy had he, at his worst moments, been found by someone like Zabuza. Thinking on how easily he fell for Mizuki's ploy, he couldn't even say that it was ridiculous.

Now, looking at this boy, he wondered what would have happened had he found no one. It was still a stretch to call Band 7 his 'friends,' but he had people who cared about him…

"what about your friends? What about your family?"

"My closest friend tried to murder me in cold blood for some wrong I apparently committed as an infant. My father couldn't wait to convince the Hem-Netjer-Tepi to use me as the Village's weapon. Kankuro and Temari, the only two individuals my age who will spend time with me, are terrified of me and hope that someone will eventually kill me before I finally give in and kill them."

There was no bitterness in his tone of voice. Just as when he informed them about his plans to kill Rock Lee for no apparent reason, he sounded like he was making small talk about some irrelevancy.

"What about them? Why would they be relevant to anything?"

Sakura was utterly disgusted and horrified by this response.

"That's awful, but you don't seem to even care!"

"I don't care. They're not real people, just like you," he said to Sakura, then turned to Naruto. "I'm not sure about you yet."

Naruto was fully willing to admit that Sakura was smarter than him in general, but here he thought he understood the situation better than she did. He wasn't really apathetic, he just made himself that way to deal with the world. Naruto got it. Far more than he wanted to.

"Everyone exists as much as you do," Naruto answered the boy. "Killing them won't change that."

He said nothing else, just stood ready to attack if Gaara moved to kill Lee. Or him and Sakura. Staring at them, the Hekau Gatekeeper stood up and walked away.

"We should let someone in charge know," Sakura eventually brought herself to say.

--

Shockingly little was done about the Gaara incident. Security was placed on Lee's room, and on the hospital in general, and it was agreed that a group of Scions was the watch the boy from Hekau every time he left his hotel, but there was to be no punishment, nor were they to watch over him when he was in his Mentor's control.

This seemed to shock the pair, but all they got as an explanation was that 'international politics were complicated' and they were expected to leave it at that.

Naruto eventually abandoned his indignation at the Village's lack of action and went to find Fuu again, while Sakura, having basically nothing to do with Kakashi focused on helping Sasuke and no missions while her bandmates were training for the Final Exam, decided to follow him.

Since he was kind of glad that someone his age knew about Mikaboshi, and that it sort of seemed like a date even if Sakura would never admit it and probably run away screaming if he suggested it out loud, the boy had no objections to this.

Meeting up with Fuu trying to convince a shopkeeper that donuts would absolutely work better than bread for hamburgers, he completely agreed with her, shocked that he had never thought of something like that before, and managed to get the guy to give in.

Sakura stared at them both in absolute horror at the number of calories they were eating and in unadulterated envy at the fact that Fuu was so skinny in spite of eating such, apparently not irregularly. I wish I was a Gatekeeper, she thought, until their conversation started.

"So, Fuu, I met the other Gatekeeper here…"

"I know, it's weird. Is this our convention or something," she joked.

"He was…different. Monstrous. Violent. He was like…everything the people think we are."

Fuu looked down awkwardly. "It wouldn't surprise me. There are times when I listen to Crom, hearing what he wants from the world, then I look around and see what the Fae think of me, and I wonder…what if he's right? Why shouldn't I freeze the world and send it into an eternal winter?"

Sakura was a little disturbed and trying to hide it, looking to Naruto to find some solidarity but instead seeing him nod in understanding.

"Mikaboshi almost never talks to me, and when he does it's always about 'snuffing out the light.' I fought this one Angel, a Nephilim named Haku recently, and he told me his story about how he became devoted to this psychotic criminal, and it really spoke to me. I could see how, when everyone hated me, I could fall for something like that, and when I saw this Gaara kid earlier, I, well, I think I saw what would have happened if I had no one. I could see myself turning out like that."

Fuu wrapped her arms around her knees. "I don't think I did have anyone. Sometimes the Unseelie King would give me sweets, mostly to annoy the Seelie King, and every now and then some political faction or other would take me in, try to befriend me, in the hopes that I could become their weapon. They always turned on me when I didn't. There was this one woman, Suzumebachi, that thought she could use me to become Seelie Queen. I hated it when she turned against me, as she was one of my best friends…I heard she was killed by someone from this Village. Do you know a 'Shino?'"

They both looked at her uncomfortably.

"Yes…" Sakura eventually answered.

Crom Cruach's Gatekeeper laughed. "I'm not going to seek vengeance. Winter, I might try to thank him." Then she sighed. "It's just the life we're expected to lead, not knowing how to feel when your fellow Villagers die."

She leapt to her feet.

"I want to see him. Before you freak out, I was serious, I'm not going to kill him. I probably won't actually thank him, unless he asks really nicely, but I'm no threat to that guy right now. Besides, if I wait around here my handlers might find me."

--

As they traveled to the training grounds where Sakura knew that Hinata's Band liked to train, Sakura noticed something she had before but not given much thought to, even after she learned about Naruto's status.

Something about Fuu and Naruto's conversation, about her often overly idealistic comrade actually understanding what that madman had been blabbering on about…it made her wonder, and she saw the glares, the way people whispered when they saw that he was walking with two girls, as if it offended them that he might have associates who could stand to be in his general vicinity…what's going on here? She wondered.

Well, she knew exactly what was going on, even understood it on some level, as she herself had been quite frightened by the prospect when learning about her bandmate's condition, but…was I just like them?

They passed by a small shrine, one of the memorials built to honor the mortals killed by Mikaboshi's attack (there were several around the Village), and she realized that not only was she acting like a lesser version of them, she had far less reason to do so.

They had suffered under the beast inside Naruto, and on some level it was difficult to blame them. There's nothing they can do to the creature itself, she thought, so they find solace in striking its outside.

On some level, she didn't think it was right, but what was right? The world had meaning, and Gods looking over everything, that was an objective, undeniable fact, but what meaning did their children's and parents' deaths have? What greater plan made them suffer so? Fate was a bastard, and an untouchable one as far as they knew.

But should I be the same, even if I understand them? No, the answer was clear enough to her. He was her bandmate.

--

Shino, remembering his fight with the Fae, was practicing trying to fight without his Birthright immediately at hand. With his crows, it was surprisingly easy, as they were trained to work with Animal Purview users before he had met them and he somewhat understood them even without fully utilizing his boons.

The Death Purview, however, largely proved beyond him. He could see the ghosts easily enough, but they didn't respond to him as he wished when he wasn't wearing the cloak with Morrigan's feathers inlaid.

Oh well, wraiths were a situational weapon that he didn't think would save him in the Final Exam anyways. Death, at least at his level, was a Purview more relevant for dealing with the undead than other mortals. It kind of made him wonder about the entire structure of the Exam, but he was far from the first to think this and would be far from the last.

As Kiba got past his defenses and managed to get his club against his stomach again, he realized that such ponderings were a waste of time; if he couldn't get past his bandmate, then he wouldn't be able to get far in the Exams themselves. It was simple logic.

That same logic told him that excessive frustration wouldn't help any more than moping, so he called to take a break until he could simmer down for a bit, which, wouldn't you know it, happened to be the exact moment that Naruto, Sakura, and some girl that Shino had never seen before showed up. The strange girl was wearing a headband from…The Village Hidden in Dreams. That's a place I already have bad memories with, he bemoaned internally. What's she doing here?

"Hey, Shino, this is Fuu! She wanted to speak with you, because she was friends with this woman named Suzumebachi, and apparently she had something to do with you…"

Shino's sword was drawn before Naruto could finish his proclamation; training did him some good, and Kiba hadn't even put his weapon away yet so both were ready.

"Um, guys, she was clear that she didn't want to kill you," Naruto awkwardly glanced between the two Scions and his own little group. He was apparently not being very convincing right now, as their postures did not change at all.

Fuu didn't seem bothered at all. In fact, she merely went on to ask what she intended to ask in the first place, "what was she like, in her final moments?"

Shino and Kiba looked to one another for almost a moment before Shino finally answered, "I gave her a chance to surrender, and she tried to exploit the fact that I was focused on her in order to send one of her, chimerical is the term I think, at me. I killed her as quickly and painlessly as I could when I noticed."

There was a certain edge to his voice; it was clear he was uncomfortable about the topic, and not just out of fear of potentially offending Fuu.

Fuu, certainly not offended, nodded, "that sounds like her, obsessed with her ideas, ready to die, kill, and let others die so they can be upheld. That she would be killed trying to trick the person demanding her surrender, yeah, that was Suzumebachi all right."

"I'm sorry," Shino responded, clearly not certain what else to say, "but she was an enemy on a mission, and so I had to, well, um."

That discomfort was still growing.

"The last interaction I had with Suzumebachi was her screaming at me for being a monster when I wouldn't assassinate the Seelie King for her. Before that, yeah, she had been nice to me, but she made it perfectly clear that it was all a lie. She just wanted Crom Cruach under her control. Honestly, I myself didn't fully realize it until now, but I came here to thank you today."

--

Shino looked downcast. "Don't thank me. I don't think that what I did was wrong, but it wasn't right either. The situation shouldn't have happened in the first place."

Fuu tilted her head, examining the strange boy. "Are you alright?" She asked.

"Suzumebachi was…my first kill," Shino answered. "I have…complicated feelings about it."

That got her to understand.

"Oh yeah, killing is all messed up, violent, and disturbing, and makes you sick to your stomach."

Shino nodded the nod of a man who had heard it a thousand times before and really wasn't getting any new insight but didn't want to be impolite in the face of the other's sincerity. His face froze when she continued.

"But it's also so much fun."

All of the Scions looked at her in horror.

"I think that Shino knows what I'm talking about, even though he doesn't want to admit it. In fact, I bet you're having a lot of problems dealing with your emotions over the incident because you can't admit it. Having power over someone, choosing when they live and die, watching them fade away and knowing that nothing can really undo it, and then knowing that you caused it."

Everyone was too flabbergasted to respond.

"Of course, then you remember how terrible killing actually is, and then you feel terrible for feeling happy about it. The guilt, not at what you did, but at how much you liked how you did it, now that's what really eats at you."

Naruto and Sakura looked in terror, though a little less than a second before, at their sort-of-friend, while Kiba was outright offended that she would accuse Shino of enjoying the kill that he had spent so much time pretending not to mope over.

Shino stopped all of that with his response.

"I understand what you're saying. There was an…excitement to that woman's death. I had proven that I could do, I don't know, what needed to be done. I actually didn't feel the sense of power you describe, and I don't really think I have a need for such feelings, other people are not mine to power over, but, well, I've always heard stories about the Hero who does everything right on paper, who understands how everything works, who has all the tactics and understanding of what he should do and when down, but then chokes when it comes time to actually do it. When life and death are real possibilities, they can no longer function. I was…glad that I didn't choke. When it came time to take a life, I went ahead and did it. But then I thought about who she was, and how our own ideals seemed to match, and I wondered if I was wrong for feeling glad, if I was a monster for feeling glad, and…"

Shino looked Fuu directly in the eye. "Thank you for this, it was a lot of help."

Fuu smiled, though there was no joy behind it. "I just came to thank you. If it helped, well, then that's just wonderful!"

--

Sakura was greatly disturbed by all this 'understanding' of how 'fun' it was to kill people. At first it made her question whether these Gatekeepers might not actually have something wrong with them, and, even if the treatment that people did give them was wrong, then maybe there was something to be said for not treating them like normal people. But then Shino agreed with it, and even if he was always kind of creepy, well, he wasn't a Gatekeeper, and as she knew he wasn't insane.

Thinking back on her own kills, well, she hadn't killed anyone directly, except for a Titanspawn, and when she stabbed it she felt nothing but joy and excitement…but that was a Titanspawn!

She hadn't felt anything when Kakashi killed those Thralls right in front of her, and she had been fully willing to kill in self-defense if it came to that. Would she…have felt differently?

Looking back, the idea of being a Hero, fighting for the Village, it was always so exciting to her, and well, it was fighting for the the Village that had gotten her so excited. Did she not understand what that meant on a deeper level, or did she fully understand and not want to admit what taking pleasure in the idea of violence meant about herself deep down?

Maybe the takeaway from this was that they were all terrible people.

--

Weeks passed, people went on with their lives, and the day of the Final Exam neared. The Great God-on-Earth was entertaining guests, and he didn't know whether to thank them for distracting him from writing his opening speech or curse them for starting the backhanded politics early.

The Marshall and Hem-Netjer-Tepi planned to sit next to him, as the leaders of Major Villages with candidates fighting. The Ancestor, Prince, and Flockmaster had excellent seats away from public viewing; even though they had sent candidates and were thus part of this, there was no need to remind the viewing public that none of theirs had made it.

The Seelie and Unseelie King were in disagreement; the former held that, as the leader of a Village with a candidate in the Final Exams, he should be given a seat among the Major Leaders, while the latter felt that they were a Minor Village and shouldn't pretend otherwise. The fact that said Unseelie King could use the imagery to blame the current situation on his co-leader's actions definitely had nothing to do with his humility.

Sarutobi reminded them that he was being lenient on their decision to send two Courtiers into an Exam for the lower-ranking men of the Village, and let that shut up the Seelie. Wondering whether the two really thought they were being subtle when they sent that pair, he chose to say nothing out loud and instead entertain the musings of the other leaders.

"So, I hear a new Tyrant's taken hold," the Ancestor noted.

"Her rule isn't stabilized yet, several of Yagura's loyalists are still in position to strike back, but yes, ultimately it looks like we have a woman from the House of Devils on the throne," the Flockmaster elaborated. He then shrugged.

"An expected fight between disgusting creatures, the type to commit betrayals left and right."

There was a casual glance in Sarutobi's direction as he said it, which prompted the Great God-on-Earth to have none of his bullcrap.

"Well, the old peace treaties and trade agreements are ready to be signed once more, though for some reason I think it would be better if a Nephilim signed it."

The other leaders glared at the Flockmaster, but he took it in stride.

"Possibly. Maybe it can be a meeting between a Nephilim and the current head of Clan Aztlanti?" Looking to the Ancestor, he continued, "some representatives from the Bone-Court would be ideal as well. Oh, and we can make it a grand multi-Village affair, maybe with Clan Lasombra and Tzimiche, and some Black Mage Cowboys as well."

The Great God-on-Earth merely smirked in response to what the Flockmaster thought to be a brilliant point.

"Sure, her name is Anko, daughter of Tlazlteotl. I'll put you in touch, if you're serious."

The Ancestor joined in, "the Bone-Court is still restructuring itself, but the loyal will probably be ready in a few years."

The Marshall spat out some of his chewing tobacco into a silver pot and interjected, "find me a Black Mage that hasn't committed any mass murders and I'll be gladly obliged to bring him into Tall-Tales and let him sign such a historic treaty."

The Prince, not actually having a response to the Flockmaster's accusation on par with the others, merely noted, "such worthless and petty concerns when we should be focused on the young's future. To Legends, Hekau, Tall-Tales, and Dreams! I look forward to seeing what you can bring forth! May they also become the kind of leaders who know what has to be done!"

--

The Hem-Netjer-Tepi glanced around the room, utterly disgusted at this debate over whose genocide was the most forgivable. On some level, he respected the Prince for not even trying to pretend that he had some moral high ground and just praising their massacres all around. Having respect for a Vampire of all things disgusted him on a visceral level, but it was what it was.

So, here he was, controlled by some ritual of Orochimaru's pretending that he was acting of his own free will, playing the pleasant politician to a group of men he was about to try and kill. Worst of all, he wasn't even choosing to do it. That May-Apophis-Devour-Him Aztlanti Scion had his Ba in his scaly little hands, and there was nothing even the most supposedly powerful of the Mummies could do about it. I hope that the Pesedjet really are watching over this Village, for it's going to need them soon, he thought.

Out loud, he merely said, "yes, you are all to be commended for dealing with the traitors and villains within your Villages' borders." He took a sip of wine before continuing, much more softly and smugly, "especially when you have so many. That is, unfortunately, something that Hekau cannot understand."

Satisfied with his performance as the self-righteous grandstanding patriot, especially with the multiple daggers being glared at him (none of them suspicious; good for my pact with Orochimaru, bad for the world, he couldn't help but think), he leaned back and waited for them to say something important, like the schedule for the fights.

Normally, this would be a formality, but he was being forced to make his move when Gaara was up, and a silly sentimental part of him did in fact want to see his apprentices have their chance to display their talents before it happened. A small part of his heart sank when the Great God-on-Earth placed the schedule before them and he noticed that Kankuro was going last. Temari, it seemed, would be getting one shot in to make her mark, so that at least could work out, if Osiris was kind.

--

Kin (Tsumire, she reminded herself) regretted coming to the street filled with open air food stands. They made her so hungry, even though she ate well enough by normal human standards.

But she didn't want to eat by normal human standards. She craved normal humans. Kabuto didn't think that was wise, for obvious reasons, and she was basically Kabuto's bitch at the moment, so she forwent what every part of screamed at her to acquire and instead bought some fired pork.

Pig meat was surprisingly similar to human, and thus it almost, sort of satisfied her. Almost.

Clearing her head of such foolish thoughts, she instead focused on her mission; to tail Sasuke and find out how to break him emotionally. Find out what angle could get him to abandon the Village Hidden in Legends for the Village Hidden in Sacrifice.

As long as he wasn't training, it had thus far turned out to be surprisingly easy to observe him unnoticed. She was a girl roughly his age, or at least could be mistaken for it, and he was an attractive boy, and apparently one used to inordinate amounts of female attention. The people protecting Sasuke were fully aware of her, they just thought she was another fangirl, and that suited her perfectly fine.

It let her watch him, notice that he was cold and aloof, easily frustrated in spite of the demeanor he tried to portray, and also insecure about his power. He thought he was strong. He thought that he should be stronger.

That wasn't difficult to figure out, as it was a look anyone who spent time in the Village Hidden in Sacrifice saw all the time, and was undoubtedly a look that had graced Kin's own face more than once.

As time went on, she felt that he would be pretty easy to corrupt; they just needed to use the lure of power combined with envy. Find someone he looked down upon and show him that that underling had grown, was becoming better than him, and the kid would snap. Kin (no, Tsumire) wondered who to choose, and how to go about setting up the signs.