Here we go again!  As per the usual, the previous parts of the story are
available at my website - http://www.mimiru.net/ - and all forms of C&C
are welcome.

One Hundred Days
A Naruto Fanfic
By: Aaron Nowack

Chapter 3: Distant Thunder

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Disclaimer:  Naruto does not belong to me, strange though that may seem.
Instead it is Kishimoto Masashi's creation.  However, the text of this
fanfic is mine, and may not be used without permission.  Also, ligers.
Insane cyborg ligers.  With laser-claws.
***********************************************************************

[Day Fifteen]

        Yakushi Kabuto was highly disappointed in the security of the
Fire Country.  He had expected to have at least once tested the cover
story that he'd carefully designed for this trip, particularly given
that he was crossing over from the Rice Field Country. The Fire Country,
after all, was technically at war with the Rice Field still, even if
there hadn't been much in the way of real battles since the failed
attack on the Leaf Village almost six months ago.  However, he'd not
seen a single Leaf ninja since he'd crossed the border at the Valley of
the End - a historic sight he'd always meant to see, but had never
gotten around to visiting before.
        He'd been dutifully impressed by the damage the monuments had
suffered.  It was blatantly obvious from the evidence that large amounts
of raw power and comparatively little control had featured in the most
recent duel to be fought there.  Kabuto was of the opinion that the way
one fought said a lot about one's personality.  No longer did he wonder
Orochimaru why had been forced to discipline his newest apprentice so
harshly.  Uchiha Sasuke's mental stability had clearly degenerated badly
between the Chuunin Exam and his defection, and corrective measures
would have to be taken.  When he returned to the Sound Village, Kabuto
planned to suggest a few appropriate drug cocktails, though he expected
Orochimaru would refuse.  His master preferred more traditional methods
of reforging his weapons to best serve his ends.
        Now, finally, Kabuto had reached where he was to deliver his
master's message, and he was once again disappointed.  He was certain
that this was the right hill, with the right pattern of trees with the
right markings on their trunks.  He had double-checked and searched the
surrounding hilltops, yet there was no sign of his contact to be found.
Kabuto was beginning to get annoyed, a feeling he preferred to clear
himself of by eliminating the source.  This time, though, he knew that
was not an option.  Orochimaru's punishment for such a betrayal at this
stage would make the young Uchiha's recent experiences seem more than
pleasant, and that was not something that Kabuto wished for himself.
Far from it.
        Kabuto frowned as his finely-honed senses easily detected the
two intruders rapidly approaching him.  He caught a quick glimpse of
them as they began to climb the hill.  Both were far too young to be his
contact.  Was this a betrayal?  Unlikely, he judged.  These two couldn't
be more than genin, both by their age and the way they moved.  It would
be unusual arrogance on the part of the Leaf to send two genin to
collect his head.  The latest bingo book the Sound had captured had
listed Kabuto as an A-rank criminal, correcting the mistake of earlier
versions which had relied on his deliberately poor records as a Leaf
genin and ranked him much lower.
        It was always better to be safe, though, and Kabuto carefully
secreted himself in a tree as the pair neared the hilltop.  They were a
boy and a girl - both seemed to be at most fourteen years old and
neither wore a forehead protector.  However, Kabuto noticed the slightly
lighter skin where one would have sat on the boy's forehead, and he
smiled as he continued to study the pair.
        The two walked to the center of the hilltop, and then the boy
made an exaggerated recognition sign - the one that had been arranged
with his contact.  The boy spun around slowly so that Kabuto would have
been able to see the sign no matter where he hid.  "We have come," the
boy said, "to deliver a message to you from our teacher."  Kabuto
decided not to show himself, at least for now.
        The boy spun around once more, then grimaced, dropping the
recognition sign.  "I guess he's not here.  What should we -"  He
stopped talking suddenly as his companion laid a hand on his shoulder.
        "He's here," the girl said, her bright eyes darting about the
hilltop.  "I can feel him watching us."
        Kabuto smiled.  The girl was perceptive, at least.
        The boy seemed to be almost as impatient as another young boy of
Kabuto's acquaintance.  "Then why doesn't he come out?" he asked his
companion, looking about futilely.  The girl paled.
        "I'm right behind you," Kabuto said from where he had silently
landed.  The boy jumped, practically spinning around in midair to face
him.  His mouth opened, no doubt to say something rude, but the girl
once again lay a hand on his shoulder and he stopped.
        "The recognition sign?" she asked.
        Kabuto smiled.  "Good girl," he said as he carefully made the
sign that corresponded to the one the boy had made.
        The girl relaxed slightly.  "You are Yakushi Kabuto of the
Hidden Sound?"  She paused.  "Or his representative?" she added.
        "I am," Kabuto replied, not indicating which question he
answered.
        It didn't seem to matter to the girl, who nodded.  "This is the
message we have been sent to give you," she said, then she took a deep
breath.  She continued, clearly reciting from memory, "Our other
business in this country is regrettably taking longer to conclude than
we had hoped.  It should be over, one way or another, within the next
day.  The meeting shall, with your permission, proceed as planned
tomorrow."  She took another deep breath.  "Your reply?"
        "That is agreeable," Kabuto replied.  He smiled at the boy, who
was still glowering at him.  "Tell your teacher you need more training
in detecting ambushes," he commented before disappearing in a burst of
smoke.  It was an overly flashy exit, but Kabuto liked to impress.

***********************************************************************

        Much to her surprise, Sakura must have slept, for she found
herself awakening suddenly at the sound of footsteps outside her door.
She slipped out of bed, a kunai appearing in her hand as she moved into
position beside the door.  Whoever was outside tested the door handle,
discovering that it was locked.
        "Who's there?" Sakura called.
        "It's me," came Anko's voice.  "Let me in."
        Sakura reached for the lock, then paused.  "Do you have a
snake?" she asked.
        There was a long pause.  "No," Anko said carefully.
        Sakura's hand drew nearer to the lock, but she still stopped
short.  "Do you have more than one snake?" she said, suspicion in her
voice.
        Anko let out a merry curse.  "You're getting too smart for me,
girl," she said.  There was the sound of a window being opened and shut.
"Not anymore.  Now let me in."
        Sakura's hand retreated from the lock.  "Let me get dressed
first."
        Anko laughed.  "Don't trust me with your fragile honor, Sakura-
chan?"
        "I don't know what I can trust with you with," Sakura answered
as she turned away.  She paused.  "And my honor isn't fragile!" she
protested.  Anko laughed as she stomped over to her bags and quickly
began to dress.  "Besides," Sakura continued, "unless you're even
weirder than I thought, we're both girls!  How would that even work?"
        There was a long pause, and Anko laughed again.  "Have you got a
lot to learn, girl.  Maybe I should ask Shiomi-san to lend you some of
her books."
        Sakura flushed.  As she finished dressing, she stomped over to
the door and unlocked it.  "That won't be necessary," she said stiffly
as she opened the door.  Anko had a black eye and several minor scrapes
and bruises that she hadn't had when Sakura had last seen her, but Anko
seemed in fine spirits as she smiled evilly at her student.  "What
happened to you?" Sakura asked.
        Anko grinned.  "Kimi and I had a very productive discussion."
Anko's face straightened after a moment.  "Are you ready?" she asked
seriously.
        Sakura's hands reflexively checked her equipment.  "As ready as
I'm going to get," she answered as a flutter settled into her empty
stomach.  Despite their brief conversation, she knew nothing of Shimano
Ren's skills beyond the basic competence evident in the way she held
herself.  Sakura guessed the other girl was genin-level at most, but it
was only a guess.  At least Sakura knew Ren knew as little as of her as
she knew of Ren.  "Is it time?" she asked, forcing her voice to hide her
nervousness.
        Anko nodded.  "My sister and her girl have already headed to the
examination hall."
        Sakura nodded.  "What should I expect?"
        "Just a fight," Anko said.  "You'll recognize the examination
hall when you see it - it's based off of the same model as the place
where we held the preliminary fights in the exam.  There's differences,
but nothing you can't handle."
        Sakura forced herself to nod again, pushing dancing images of
defeat and humiliation out of her mind.  "What are we waiting for,
then?"
        Anko grinned.  "That's the spirit," she said as she lead Sakura
down the stairs and out into the rest of the fortress.  They threaded
their way through a number of halls, entering the parts of the fortress
that had not been repaired after the near-destruction of the Mitarashi
Clan.  "There hasn't been need of the hall since then," Anko answered
Sakura's unspoken question.  Anko stopped in front of a set of double
doors.
        Across the hall from the doors stood a stone, life-sized statue
of a woman in armor heavier than was now common, much like that Sakura
had seen in paintings of the first two Hokages.  The woman's hands
formed a seal.  "Who's that?" she asked.
        "Mitarashi herself," Anko answered shortly, "the legendary
founder of the clan."  Anko laid a hand on Sakura's shoulder.  "We're
here."  She paused momentarily.  "Don't worry too much, Sakura-chan.  I
wouldn't let you do this if I didn't think you could win."  Sakura
forced herself to nod, and Anko opened the doors.
        The special jounin had been right - the examination hall was
familiar, a large room encircled by an upper balcony, dominated by a
giant statue of a a pair of hands forming a seal.  The only differences
that Sakura noted in her first look were that instead of a bank of
monitors the wall behind the statue was taken up by a mural of a red
dragon and, more importantly, that the third of the hall closest to the
statue was taken up by a shallow-seeming pool of water.  The water
steamed slightly, and several rocks had been placed in it, creating a
handful of "islands."
        Ren stood in the center of the hall next to a tall woman in the
simple black clothing that seemed to be the uniform of the Mitarashi
Clan's few retainers.  Sakura glanced upward, and saw Anko's grandmother
flanked by another pair of black-clad women.  Kimi stood slightly behind
and to her grandmother's left, and Sakura thought she saw the older
Mitarashi sister smirk at her.  Anko patted her on the shoulder again.
"Good luck," the jounin said, before walking over to the stairs and
ascending to join the rest of her family.
        Sakura forced herself not to shake as she walked to where Ren
stood.  The retainer on the floor quickly positioned her and Ren twelve
paces apart, facing each other along a line drawn through the center of
the hall.  Sakura glanced at the pool to her left, and she began to
plan.  Could Ren walk on water?
        Ren smiled at her.  "No hard feelings, right?" she asked, her
voice no less soft now than before, though as always it still was
without any sign of weakness.
        Sakura nodded.  "No hard feelings."
        The retainer who was apparently to serve as the judge walked to
stand halfway between the two girls, raising one hand.  "The terms of
the match are to yield or unconsciousness," she said.  "If I decide that
one of you is no longer able to fight, I will end the match.  Do you
understand?"  Both girls nodded.  "Then may the Fire Dragon watch over
the battle," she said, dropping her arm.  "Begin!"  The retainer
vanished, no doubt jumping up to the balcony to observe the battle from
a safe distance.
        Ren was the first to move, forming a familiar seal in one hand.
Sakura nodded slightly.  If this match was to demonstrate mastery of the
Mitarashi Clan's techniques, then that was an obvious place to start.
She copied Ren smoothly, chakra gathering between the fingers of her
other hand.  As one the two girls charged each other, shouting in
unison, "Katon: Claw of the Fire Dragon!"  The streams of flame crossed
in mid air, pushing against each other as though they were solid.
Sakura barely had time to note that Ren's fires were longer than hers
before she began to lose control.
        Sakura jumped backward, releasing her seal and avoiding the
inevitable downward path of Ren's fiery claws, no longer countered by
Sakura's.  Before Ren could recover, Sakura raced to one side, pulling a
kunai from its sheath at her leg and hurling it in one smooth motion.
Ren brought up her claws, swiping it out of the air, but Sakura was
already circling behind her.
        Shuriken filled Sakura's hands as she charged.  Ren's eyes
widened as Sakura threw the missiles.  Releasing the seal for the Claw
of the Fire Dragon, Ren drew her own kunai as she leapt out of the way.
"You're fast, Haruno-san," she said, breathing heavily.
        "Thank you," Sakura said, reaching for more shuriken.  She took
a moment to plan out her course.  Ren moved before she did, charging
Sakura in a straight line.  Sakura released her shuriken, but Ren
slipped through the missiles easily, parrying the few that got close
with her kunai.  Sakura barely had time to draw a kunai of her own,
blocking Ren's first strike.  Sakura countered, plunging her blade into
Ren's guts.
        Ren exploded into a cloud of black smoke.  The lack of the
expected resistance unbalanced Sakura.  Sakura's eyes watered and she
coughed as she stumbled into the smoke.  When her eyes cleared, three
Ren stood before her.  "You must not have been studying the Mitarashi
Clan's techniques for long," one said, "if you did not expect the Shadow
Smoke Evasion, Haruno-san."
        Sakura said nothing, her eyes narrowing as she studied her
opponent, her kunai held defensively.  Which was the real Ren?  Sakura
noticed the presence above her a moment too late.  The three
replications vanished as Ren dropped down behind Sakura, disarming her
with one strong strike from her own kunai.  Sakura recovered, grabbing
Ren's arm and throwing her away before she could get her weapon in
position for a killing strike.
        Ren rolled as she hit the ground, springing to her feet almost
instantly and charging Sakura again.  Sakura retreated as she reached
for her last kunai.  She needed time to think and work out a
counterattack.  Her free hand grabbed a handful of shuriken and threw
them.  The oncoming missiles only distracted Ren briefly, but they
bought Sakura a few more seconds.
        Sakura almost stumbled as her foot hit water, but she
reflexively channeled chakra to stabilize it on the surface.  She was
running out of room and time.  Taking a deep breath, Sakura leapt
backward, landing lightly on one of the "islands" scattered about the
pool.  She couldn't afford to waste chakra walking on water now.  Ren
drew up short as she reached the pools surface, and Sakura smiled.  If
her foe couldn't walk on water, she would be at an immense disadvantage
attacking.
        Ren smiled back at her.  "I have you now," was all she said, her
hands blurring into a set of seals.  Before Sakura could react, Ren
kicked at the water, splashing some vaguely in Sakura's direction.  The
water lengthened and thickened in midair, speeding toward Sakura with
surprising swiftness.  The coils of water wrapped themselves around
Sakura's left arm and leg, feeling as solid as rope.  Sakura looked up,
and saw the other ends of the lines of water firmly in Ren's hand.
"Suiton: Water Rope Technique," Ren said anticlimactically.
        Sakura considered her options.  She had a single kunai left and
a handful of shuriken that she could use to keep Ren at bay for a while,
but in the long run it was hopeless unless she could free herself.
Sakura tested the chakra-charged water with her free hand, but no matter
how hard she pressed it moved not at all.
        "You can't escape, Haruno-san," Ren said.  "Do you yield?"
        "Sakura!" Anko yelled down from the balcony.  "Hurry and beat
her up!  I'm getting bored."
        "Easy for you to say," Sakura muttered to herself as her agile
mind raced to come up with a solution.  She remembered what the Hyuuga
librarian had told her.  "Anything that is made from chakra can be
destroyed by chakra."  Sakura felt at the rope again, struggling to feel
the patterns of chakra that ran through it.  No matter how hard she
tried, though, she could not find a weak point where a chakra-charged
strike could shatter the bonds.
        Ren moved her kunai into a throwing position, yanking on the
water ropes with her other hand.  "Do you yield?" she repeated.
        Sakura smiled as a solution came to her.  "Not yet," she said
quietly as she brought her bound hand up to her chest and raised the
other high above her head.  She'd only read Kakashi's description of
this technique, but it had seemed simple enough, and the conditions were
ideal.  Each of her hands formed half a seal, and she closed her eyes
briefly as she concentrated on channeling her chakra in unfamiliar ways.
"Mist Concealment Technique," she breathed.
        Ren's eyes widened as the wisps of steam floating above the pool
thickened into coils of near-solid seeming mist.  "I don't know how you
learned that technique, Haruno-san," she said as the mist finished
forming, turning half the hall into a near-zero visibility area, "but I
don't see what good it does you."
        Sakura said nothing as her hands raced through a more familiar
set of seals.  Within seconds, there was the sound of water splashing
and then several pairs of footsteps circling behind Ren.  She smiled to
herself.  Her fake replications were "a little misty," were they?  It
wouldn't make any difference like this.
        "Replications won't do you any good either," Ren said.  "They
can't attack, and I know just where the real you is."  She yanked on the
water ropes again.
        "Is that so?" came Sakura's voice from behind Ren.  The other
girl started as she felt a hand on her shoulder, dropping the water
ropes in surprise.  Ren recovered quickly, her elbow shooting backward.
She felt it connect, and heard Sakura flying backward to land heavily.
        Ren whirled around to face her, her kunai raised to strike.
"You should have attacked from surprise," she commented.
        Meanwhile, the real Sakura stretched her arm as the water rope
dissolved.  It was time.  She charged Ren as the other girl placed her
kunai at the fake Sakura's neck.  Ren's eyes widened as she heard the
attack from behind a moment too late.  She whirled about again, but too
slowly to get into a defensive position.
        "Sorry about this," Sakura said as one hand formed a seal.
"Katon: Claw of the Fire Dragon!"  The claws of fire raked across Ren's
chest, the sudden force of the strike sending the girl flying back
through the mist.  Sakura released the three techniques she was
struggling to keep active, breathing heavily from the exertion.  She
winced as she heard the other girl hit the ground.  She'd tried to
weaken the technique somewhat so it wouldn't hurt Ren too badly, but
Sakura hadn't had much chakra left.  She had needed to land a blow that
counted before she ran out.
        Sakura drew her last kunai as she walked out of the rapidly
dissolving mist.  Ren lay groaning on the ground, the figure of the
judge standing beside her.  The front of Ren's blue dress was torn open,
and Sakura grimaced as she saw the burnt skin underneath it.  It
wouldn't be life-threatening, but it had to hurt badly.  "Is it over?"
she asked the judge as she drew nearer.
        Ren was still struggling to rise, but after a long moment she
allowed herself to fall back to the ground.  She nodded slightly, and
the judge raised one arm.  "In the eyes of the Fire Dragon, the victor:
Haruno -"
        "Enough of this farce!"  Sakura's eyes widened.  She had felt
movement, but she hadn't seen a thing as Mitarashi Kimi had jumped down
from the balcony, knocking Sakura's kunai out of her hand with one of
her long, curved blades and placing the other at Sakura's throat.
Sakura wasn't able to stop herself from swallowing nervously.
        In an instant, Anko was there too, her kunai pushing Kimi's
blade away from Sakura's throat.  "What is the meaning of this?" shouted
the two sisters' grandmother from the balcony above as the retainers
near her moved to protect her.  "Mitarashi Kimi, explain yourself
immediately!"
        "I don't know where you found this girl, Anko," Kimi said, "or
how you taught her the first technique so quickly, but I know she is no
true student of yours."
        Anko's eyes narrowed dangerously.  "Oh?" she asked.
        "The Leaf would never give you a real student, Anko, since you
were taught by -" Kimi cut off as Anko attacked, her kunai sliding past
Kimi's blade and at her face.  Kimi danced back, raising both blades to
a defensive position.  Sakura wasn't able to stop her eyes from
narrowing as she studied Anko, wondering just what Kimi had been about
to say.
        "You tread on dangerous ground," Anko said as she drew another
kunai with her free hand.  "Remember who won our discussion yesterday."
        Kimi laughed as she sheathed her blades, retreating out of easy
charge range.  One hand reached into a pocket.  "Do you think that I
showed my true power then, Anko-chan?" she asked as she pulled out a
forehead protector and quickly tied it around her head.  "You aren't the
only one who found a patron village."  Kimi lowered her hands to the
hilts of her weapons, revealing that the four diagonal lines of the
Hidden Mist marked the metal part of the forehead protector.
        Anko tensed.  "I suspected as much."  She snorted.  "It must
have been difficult for one as devout as you were to survive there."
        Kimi snarled as she drew her blades.  "Our faith did nothing to
save our parents or the Clan.  It wasn't difficult at all."  Her stance
shifted slightly.  "Are you ready?" she asked.
        "Any time," Anko answered.
        "Stop this at once!" their grandmother yelled from above, but
the two sisters ignored her.  The judge began to move to intervene, but
sensibly stopped when the two charged each other.  The sisters' blades
met in midair, moving too rapidly for Sakura's eyes to follow.  Again
and again they clashed, but no matter how she strained Sakura could see
only blurred motion.
        Then Anko stumbled back, her kunai falling from her hands and a
line of blood drawn across her face.  Kimi smiled, not pressing her
attack.  "Is that the best you can do, little sister?" she asked.
        Anko smiled back at her.  "I'll end this quickly, big sister, so
your student can get the attention she needs."  Kimi glanced back,
perhaps a bit ashamed, at Ren, who had forced herself to her knees as
she watched the fight.  "Stay calm," Anko told Sakura.  She rolled up
one of the sleeves of her jacket, revealing a black tattoo that wound
itself around her arm above her wrist.  She wiped some blood from her
face with her thumb, then drew a line with it down the tattoo, slamming
that hand onto the ground.  "Summoning Technique!"
        There was a massive cloud of white smoke, and when it faded the
two Lead ninja were surrounded by a wall of green scales.  Sakura's eyes
widened as she realized that a giant snake was coiled around them.
"Don't panic," Anko reminded Sakura, who forced herself to nod even as
she remembered when she had seen a snake just like this one.  It had
been in the Forest of Death, with Orochimaru.  Even the thought of that
man made her panic, the same terror that had crippled her when she had
been faced with the false Orochimaru in the Rice Field Country.
        Anko grabbed the frozen Sakura and jumped to land on the head of
the snake.  Another set of kunai appeared from within her jacket after
she released her student.  "Well, Kimi?  Are you ready to give up?"
        Kimi snarled, but sheathed her blades as she glanced about.
Black-clad retainers were pouring into the hall from outside, no doubt
summoned somehow by the elder.  "It seems I no longer have time," Kimi
answered, stepping backward to stand before Ren.  She knelt, helping her
student onto her shoulders.  "Have no fear," Kimi said as she formed
seals, "we will finish this one day soon, sister."
        Both she and her student vanished in a sudden burst of smoke.

***********************************************************************

[Day Sixteen]

        This time when Kabuto arrived at the hilltop, his contact was
waiting for him.  Kabuto moved silently up the side of the hill,
observing the woman who waited for him.  Unlike the kids she had sent to
meet him yesterday, she wore the Mist forehead protector openly, and
therefore Kabuto mentally marked down arrogance on the list of her
character flaws he was already compiling.  There was something slightly
familiar about her that Kabuto couldn't quite place, and he frowned.
What was he missing?
        There were signs that there had been at least two other people -
her students, no doubt - with her recently, but they were no longer in
evidence.  A quick search of the surrounding area turned up their trail
and showed they had not doubled back to observe the meeting from a
hidden vantage point.  Kabuto returned to the hilltop as silently as he
had left it, finding the woman still standing in the center of the
circle of trees.
        "Are you satisfied?" she asked suddenly.  "I'd be a fool to plan
a betrayal at this stage."
        Kabuto left hiding and walked up to his contact.  "As expected
from a jounin of the Hidden Mist," he commented.  "I trust your other
business went well?"
        "Not so well as I might have hoped.  I had hoped to bring you my
sister as present for your master."
        Kabuto's eyes narrowed as he made the connection he should have
made earlier.  "You are Mitarashi Kimi, then."
        Kimi smiled.  "The Sound's spies are well informed," she said.
"I thought returning Orochimaru's old apprentice to him would be a
worthy beginning to this venture."
        "While Orochimaru-sama would certainly take advantage of the
opportunity, your sister is not high on his list of concerns, Mitarashi-
san."  Kabuto smiled slightly.  "Orochimaru-sama cares little for what
happens to his tools once their purpose is served."
        "And you would serve such a man willingly?" Kimi asked.  When
Kabuto did not reply, she continued.  "You are Yakushi Kabuto, of
course."
        "Of course," Kabuto responded.  "Orochimaru-sama would not
offend the Mist by sending any mere jounin to seal this deal."  Kabuto
waited curiously to see how Kimi would respond to the implied insult.
        "You seem to have a clever tongue, Yakushi-san, but not even you
could convince the leaders of the Mist to meet with Orochimaru or his
men.  We remember what happened to the Kazekage well."  Kimi smiled
dangerously.  "I was specifically told to warn you that the Mist do not
trust Orochimaru's promises.  We know that you will betray us, given the
chance and a reason."
        "Am I to tell Orochimaru-sama that the deal is off, then?"
Kabuto asked, his hand poised to reach for a weapon.
        "No."  Kimi's smile vanished.  "The Mist simply want Orochimaru
to know that we are not as trusting as the Sand.  If you betray us, we
will be ready, and the Sound will learn why we were once called the
Bloody Mist."
        Kabuto resisted the urge to smile.  "I shall pass your message
on."  He paused.  "I too was given a message.  Orochimaru-sama extends
his compliments to the Hidden Mist's spies in the Leaf Village and
thanks the Mizukage for their loan."
        Kimi frowned, and Kabuto guessed she knew nothing of this.  "His
message shall be heard.  I trust then that Orochimaru is prepared to
commit to ally with the Mist?"
        "He is," Kabuto answered.
        "Very well."  A scroll appeared in Kimi's hands.  "Carry this
back to your master, then, and tell him to be prepared to move when the
Leaf's Chuunin Exam ends."
        Kabuto took the scroll.  "Is there anything else?"  He would
read the scroll, of course, but not while the Mist jounin was watching.
        Kimi shook her head.  "Unless you have some other message."
        "Only to once again offer our forces' aid in the initial raid,"
Kabuto said.  "Security at the exam will be heightened because of what
happened last time."
        "We are aware of that," Kimi replied,  "but we do not require
your aid.  The more focus the Leaf put on protecting the exam, the
better."
        As he had been instructed, Kabuto pressed on this point.  There
were deeds Orochimaru wished done, and it would be easier to do them
with the Mist's cooperation.  "You may not require it, but we wish to
make a show of good faith.  We will accept whatever conditions you feel
are necessary, but we must insist."
        Kimi's eyes narrowed.  "I have been permitted to allow no more
than three Sound squads to join the raid if necessary," she admitted,
"though I dislike the idea.  They are to be in position two weeks before
the raid, and we will contact them with orders when we are ready to use
them."  Her hand flicked to the hilt of one of her weapons.  "I am told
to remind you that we will watch them carefully for any sign of
treachery, and the Mist will act appropriately if such evidence is
found."
        Kabuto bowed slightly.  "As you wish.  I shall carry this word
to Orochimaru-sama."
        Kimi nodded, and in unison the two ninja vanished, though they
traveled in opposite directions.

***********************************************************************

        "What kind of crazy place doesn't have any ramen?" Naruto
complained, not for the first time.
        "You're in a different country now, Naruto," Jiraiya said.
"They don't eat all the same foods we do in the Fire Country.  In a big
city you'd be able to find ramen, but not a little village like where we
stayed last night."  Not that Naruto would be visiting any big cities if
Jiraiya had his way.  They'd stick to the back-country roads - of which
Earth Country had a plentiful supply - and keep a low profile until they
could get in touch with his old friend.
        "Well why don't they eat ramen?" Naruto asked.  "Ramen is good!"
        Jiraiya sighed.  He could launch into an impromptu history
lesson explaining the reasons for the occasionally surprisingly
different culture of the Earth Country, but he doubted Naruto would
appreciate it.  Jiraiya wouldn't have at the boy's age, after all, and
the Toad Hermit saw more than a little of his younger self in the boy.
Though he'd never been quite so enthusiastic about the title of Hokage.
That had always been Orochimaru's ambition, not his.  That dream had
perhaps been the only thing his first apprentice had held in common with
Orochimaru.
        "Well, why not?" Naruto demanded, and Jiraiya chuckled.  His
second apprentice, on the other hand, was far more like his first than
he would prefer.
        "I don't know," Jiraiya said.  "That's just the way it is."
        Naruto pouted.  "That's not a very good answer, Ero-sennin."
        "Well, remember this for the next time you're in a library,
boy," Jiraiya said.  "Then you can look it up and find out what
generations of scholars had to say on the subject."
        "But that's boring!" Naruto said.
        "You want to know, don't you?" Jiraiya asked.  Naruto nodded
cautiously, sensing he was being led into a trap of some sort.  "Then
you'll have to decide whether you want to know badly enough to be
bored."
        Naruto shook his head frantically.  "Nothing's worth that."
        Jiraiya smiled.  "Not even becoming Hokage?"
        "What?" Naruto said.  "What's that got to do with anything?"
        "You've seen all the paperwork Tsunade has to do, haven't you?
Do you think you'd enjoy that, or would it be boring?"
        The idea had never occurred to Naruto.  "I guess being Hokage
would be worth being bored," he admitted.  "But that doesn't change
anything!  Studying in the library is still boring, and I don't want to
do it!"
        "You'll have to do it if you want to become Hokage, boy,"
Jiraiya said.  His eyes glanced ahead and noted an approaching fork in
the road.  If he remembered correctly they would have to take the left
fork here, but he'd need to check his maps.
        "What? Why?" Naruto demanded, clearly upset by the notion.
        "There's lots of things a Hokage needs to know," Jiraiya
answered as he slowed his walk and began to search his pack for the map.
"You won't learn them all if you don't study."
        "Why can't you just tell me what I need to know?"
        Jiraiya found the map.  "Because I don't know everything you'd
need to know."
        "Then I'll find the people who do!" Naruto said.
        "Nobody does," Jiraiya said as he unrolled it.  Yes, the right
fork would take them to a main highway that passed far too close to the
Rock Village.  The left fork was the correct path.  "Some people know
some things, but you'd spend the rest of your life tracking everything
down.  The only way to learn it all is to study."
        "That doesn't sound fun," Naruto complained.
        "Do you only want to become Hokage because you think it will be
fun?" Jiraiya asked as he rolled the map back up.  "Is it just a game to
you?"
        "No!" Naruto said.
        Jiraiya smiled.  "Good."  It would have been hard to imagine
Naruto becoming someone worthy of the title Hokage, if Jiraiya had not
already seen a very similar boy make the same journey before.  Every
thirteen year old boy was immature.  It was the man they would turn into
that mattered, and if Jiraiya had anything to say about it Naruto would
become a great man.  The last legacy of the Fourth Hokage deserved no
less.
        As they reached the fork in the road, Naruto suddenly coughed.
Jiraiya nodded almost imperceptibly, mere moments before a trio of Rock
ninja appeared from their hiding places in the boulders that kept the
road from continuing straight ahead.  "Halt and identify yourselves!"
one ninja declared.
        Jiraiya glanced at Naruto.  He had taken the time to coach the
boy, and hopefully there wouldn't be any repeats of the incident in Hill
Country.  That was assuming these ninja weren't looking for them
specifically, of course.  In that case it was only a matter of time
before matters escalated.  Still, now that they were well past the
border Jiraiya judged the danger of that to be minimal.
        As planned, Naruto approached the ninja, bowing perhaps a bit
too low.  "You have the honor of addressing the high priest of
Gamabunta-sama, the Lord of All Toads!"  Jiraiya had decided to stick to
this disguise, as he was well-used to it, and any ninja that had heard
that the "Sound spies" in the Hill Country had used it surely would also
have their descriptions.  Naruto glanced back at Jiraiya, then whispered
loudly to the lone woman in the Rock team, "He's a bit of a pervert, so
you should watch out."  That hadn't been planned, and Jiraiya glared at
his apprentice's back.
        The Rock ninja who had already spoken snorted.  "A toad-priest?
Maybe you can help Rena get rid of her warts."  The Rock kunoichi hit
the speaker on the shoulder.  "That hurt!" he complained.
        "I figure that if I keep on hitting you when you say something
stupid, you'll get smarter," the kunoichi said.  "They call it pain
therapy or something like that."
        The third ninja rolled his eyes.  "Just ask the old fool the
question."
        "Right," the other man replied embarrassedly.  "Um... have you
two encountered any bandits along this road?  We've been sent by the
Hidden Rock to eliminate the raiders that have been troubling this
area."
        Jiraiya shook his.  "No, we have not, but perhaps they feared to
offend the gods and dared not approach," he answered slowly.  If the
Rock were going to be searching this area for bandits, that would
complicate matters.
        "I doubt it," the woman said.  "We've seen some of their work,
and these aren't nice people.  The only gods they fear are ones nobody
sane would worship."
        "We shall have to be careful, then," Jiraiya answered.  "I thank
you for the warning."
        The first speaker nodded.  "We won't detain you any further,
then."  Jiraiya thanked the Rock ninja again, and soon he and Naruto
were on their way again.
        "They were nice," Naruto commented once they were out of
earshot.
        "Of course they were," Jiraiya said.  "The Earth Country is at
peace, and we gave them no reason to be suspicious of us.  If you were
on a patrol mission back home, wouldn't you be nice to anyone you met?"
        "I guess so," Naruto answered.
        "We're lucky they didn't wonder if we were connected to the
bandits," Jiraiya said.  "I'm not sure I trust your packs to hold up
under scrutiny."
        Naruto glowered.  "I hid everything just like you showed me."
Along with most of his ninja tools, both Leaf forehead protectors Naruto
carried were well hidden.  A careful search would uncover them, of
course, but a simple quick look would find nothing out of the ordinary.
        "Good," Jiraiya said.  Then he glared at Naruto.  "Now what have
I told you about calling me a pervert?"
        Naruto sniffed.  "If you don't want to be called a pervert, you
should stop doing perverted things!"
        Jiraiya sighed.  This was going to be a long trip, wasn't it?

***********************************************************************

[Day Seventeen]

        Naruto was less than happy.  It had been days since he'd had any
ramen, and from what Jiraiya had told him there wasn't any ramen in his
future unless he used some of his rapidly dwindling supply of instant
ramen.  Yet even this terrible hardship paled before his current
complaint.  "When are you going to teach me another technique, Ero-
sennin?" Naruto demanded, and not for the first time today.  "This is
supposed to be a training trip, isn't it?"
        "We don't have time to stop and train right now," Jiraiya
answered.  "Once we reach my friend's place, you'll have all the
training you can handle."  Jiraiya smiled slightly.  "Besides, you still
haven't learned the first technique I showed you."
        "It doesn't work," Naruto grumbled.  "I stayed up almost all
night trying to move that stupid pinwheel and it didn't even twitch.
Why can't you give me another hint?  What's the trick?"
        "There is no trick."  Jiraiya pulled a pinwheel from somewhere,
and an instant later it started to spin.  "It's all about chakra
control."
        "I don't get it," Naruto declared.  "What is it with chakra
control?  Everybody says mine's real bad and that I waste too much
chakra, but nobody tells me how to have good chakra control.  I don't
see the point, anyway.  It's not like I ever run out of chakra."
        Jiraiya put his pinwheel away.  "Not everybody has your chakra
reserves, boy."
        "So?"  Naruto pressed.  "I do!  Why should I care about chakra
control?"
        "Because control is important," Jiraiya answered.  "Without
control you can't manipulate your chakra as well, and that limits the
techniques you can learn."  Jiraiya smiled.  "You won't ever become
Hokage if you only learn easy techniques."
        "You said Rasengan was one of the most difficult techniques!"
Naruto protested.  "If I can learn that, I can learn almost anything,
right?"
        "There are different types of difficult techniques," Jiraiya
said.  "There's techniques that require you to channel a lot of chakra
and there's techniques that require very fine control.  Rasengan is
difficult because it needs a lot of chakra to be manipulated at once,
but the actual chakra molding is very simple if you use more than one
hand."
        "Oh," Naruto said.  He'd never thought about it that way before,
but it seemed right.  "So how do I get better control?"
        "Practice," Jiraiya answered.  "There aren't any shortcuts."
        "That's what you always say," Naruto mumbled.  "But how should I
practice?"
        Jiraiya rubbed his chin, stopping in his tracks and glancing
about, perhaps to check for hidden watchers.  "Let's see.  How about you
try to use the Whirlwind Counter?  I'll watch and see if I can tell what
you're doing wrong."
        Naruto nodded eagerly, his hands already forming the technique's
single seal.  He closed his eyes, concentrating furiously and building
up his chakra.  The very air around him began to feel charged, until
finally he shouted "Whirlwind Counter!"  There was a large pulse of
chakra that briefly disturbed the still air, but nothing like the
controlled powerful winds Jiraiya had summoned when he used the
technique.
        Jiraiya sighed.  "First, you're using way too much chakra, boy.
You're trying to move the air with brute force rather than control."
        "What difference does it make?" Naruto grumbled.
        "We don't normally realize it, but air weighs a lot.  Not even
you can channel enough chakra to make it do anything useful that way,
boy."  Jiraiya paused.  "Well, maybe you could channel that much, but
you still wouldn't accomplish anything.  It'd take a chakra control
genius to make that much chakra do anything but push out wildly.
Tsunade might be able to do it but no one else I can think of could."
        Naruto pondered this for a moment.  He didn't get the bit about
air weighing a lot - air didn't weigh anything, right?  The rest made
sense, though, and that seemed to be the important part.  "I think I
understand," he said.
        "Do you?" Jiraiya asked, doubt clear in his voice.
        "I'm not stupid!" Naruto snapped.  "So what should I do?"
        "Hmm."  Jiraiya rubbed his chin in thought again.  "Try and mold
the smallest amount of chakra you can.  Don't do anything with it, but
just try to hold it as long as possible.  When you have to let it go, do
it again but try to mold less chakra and hold it longer.  You can do
that while we're walking."  And with that, Jiraiya set off again.
        Naruto followed his teacher's instructions as he followed.  It
was harder than he expected.  It was a lot like the tree-climbing
exercise, but he found it more difficult to just hold the chakra than to
use it.  At first he could only manage it for a second or two, but by
the time the sun had begun to set, Naruto was holding onto the molded
chakra for a couple of minutes.  However, he was using only a little
less chakra than he had on his first try.  When he tried to mold a
smaller amount, it just slipped away almost instantly.
        So intent was he on his practice that he didn't notice the
bandits until Jiraiya stopped moving and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Stay calm," Jiraiya said.  "Remember that we don't want any trouble.
If possible, I want to get out of this without a fight."
        Naruto glanced about surreptitiously.  The road had entered an
area where the terrain was rough and rocky even for the Earth Country.
The road itself was straight and level, having been carved out of the
rock long ago.  This left steep if not terribly high rises on either
side of it, and the terrain provided plenty of hiding places.  It was a
though someone had purposefully set out to design a good site for an
ambush.
        The bandits themselves were easy enough to locate, a dozen or so
people roughly circling where the two ninja stood.  They weren't very
good at hiding, at least not by ninja standards.  Naruto was fairly
certain that he wouldn't have any problem defeating them, even by
himself.  With Jiraiya fighting beside him, he wouldn't even break a
sweat.  Naruto tensed himself, preparing to attack, before he remembered
Jiraiya's words.  He forced himself to relax, though one hand still
hovered over the hilt of a hidden kunai.
        After a long moment, a bandit emerged from hiding.  He was a big
man, and he waved a giant crowbar of a sword at the pair.  "Let's make
this simple!" he declared.  "You drop everything you're carrying, and I
might let you live.  You don't, and my friends shoot you."  The man
grinned toothily - or he would have if he wasn't missing most of his
teeth.  "Just so you don't get any bright ideas, I've got two crossbows
pointed at each of you, so even if one misses the other will hit."
        "I'm afraid what's in our packs would do you little good, my
friend," Jiraiya said.  "I am a priest of the toad god Gamabunta and as
all the world knows my order takes a strict vow of poverty.  Let my
apprentice and I go on our way, good sir, and I shall bless you and all
your company with the favor of my god."
        The man's eyes narrowed.  "I've never heard of any toad god
Gamababa," he said, "and I don't care about his blessings.  Give us all
your stuff before I run out of patience."
        Jiraiya raised a hand theatrically.  "If you do not desire my
god's blessings, perhaps you fear his curse?  The Lord of All Toads
prepares a terrible vengeance for all who slay his servants."
        The bandit laughed.  "Last chance, old fool."
        "So be it," Jiraiya intoned, his other hand creeping up to his
mouth.  He stuck his thumb out and bit down until blood began to flow.
Beside him, Naruto tensed again, already drawing up his chakra.  The
bandit snarled and raised his sword.  Mere moments before the scene
would have erupted into violence, all three froze.
        There was a loud buzzing sound.  Naruto looked around for the
source, but couldn't find it.  Then there were piercing screams from all
around, the hidden bandits crying out in pain and panic.  The bandit who
stood on the road before the two Leaf ninja began to shake, his sword
falling from his nerveless hands.  "What -" he began, only to stop as a
large cloud of bees rose from behind a boulder, swarming about him.  The
bandit screamed once as the bees attacked, stinging him again and again.
Then the man slumped over, and the insects vanished.
        Naruto looked about again, and saw a man standing on top of a
nearby boulder.  He was large, with dark hair and a beard, and most
importantly he wore a Hidden Rock forehead protector.  The man jumped
down to stand on the road behind the pair, who quickly turned to face
him.  "It seems I will be able to finish two missions today," he
commented.  "Suzumebachi will be pleased with me."
        Jiraiya's eyes narrowed.  "A bug user," he muttered half to
himself.
        "You are correct," the man said.  His smile turned dangerous as
he studied Jiraiya.  "I am Kamizuru Kurobachi, chuunin of the Hidden
Rock.
        A drop of blood fell from Jiraiya's thumb, still held in front
of his mouth, and fell to the ground.  "I thought that clan was
disbanded," he said.  Kurobachi snarled and extended an arm, and
countless bees began to to fly out of his cloak.  "Naruto!" Jiraiya
snapped as the insects approached.
        Naruto quickly guessed what his teacher wanted, and formed a
single seal as he took a deep breath.  "Whirlwind Shield!"  As the genin
exhaled, a windstorm sprung into being in front of the pair, flinging
the small bugs about.  When the winds died down, the bees were gone.
        Kurobachi's face had smoothed.  "I should have guessed that it
wouldn't be that easy to defeat one of the legendary Sannin," he
commented.  Naruto's eyes widened and he glanced at Jiraiya, who
frowned.  Kurobachi laughed.  "Yes, I know who you are, Jiraiya the Toad
Hermit.  The Kamizuru Clan remembers you well.  Imagine our surprise
when we were given your description as a Sound spy."  The Rock ninja
smiled.  "I was not aware that you had reconciled with Orochimaru."
Seeing the expressions on his two foes' faces, Kurobachi laughed again.
"Or have you not?  Leaf or Sound, it doesn't matter.  I'll kill you
both, and bring back the heads of the spies who regrettably died
resisting arrest."
        "We'll see about that," Naruto snarled.  "Shadow Replication
Technique!"  The horde of orange-clad ninja charged the Rock chuunin.
        "Naruto, you idiot!" snapped Jiraiya.  "It's a -"
        "Clone," finished Kurobachi's voice as one Naruto landed a
furious punch on the first Kurobachi, who melted into a pile of sticky
honey.  The Naruto stumbled forward and fell onto the honey, and
struggled briefly to free itself before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
        Kurobachi stepped out from behind a boulder, stretching out an
arm again.  Before he could release any bees, Naruto and his clones
charged him in unison.  Even as they reached the Rock ninja, he
vanished, turning into another collapsing pillar of honey.
        "You aren't very smart, are you?" Kurobachi said as he appeared
on top of another boulder, both arms spread wide.  Bees poured out of
his cloak, rapidly flying toward the orange-clad ninjas.  One Naruto
looked up, his hands quickly forming a seal.
        "Too late," Kurobachi said with a grin as he finished forming
seals of his own.  "Thousand Bee Technique!"  As one the bees stopped in
midair and released their stingers, which flew through the air like
countless thrown needles.  There was a sea of explosions of white smoke.
When the last smoke vanished, there was nothing standing on the road
where the Narutos had been.
        Kurobachi's eyes widened.  "They were all replications?"
        "I have you now!" shouted a Naruto as several clones jumped up
at Kurobachi from all around the boulder he stood on.  The Rock ninja
tried to fall into a defensive stance, but too quickly the clones struck
at his legs, kicking him up into the air as they shouted in unison
"Uzumaki Naruto..."
        Kurobachi struggled to gain control of his flight path as the
clones below him vanished in puffs of smoke.  Then his eyes widened
again as he felt a presence above him.  "Combo!" finished the last
Naruto as he delivered a fierce kick that sent Kurobachi plunging back
to the ground.  The Rock ninja landed heavily and did not rise.  Naruto
grinned as he landed on top of the boulder his opponent had recently
occupied.  "Take that," he said.
        "Naruto!" shouted Jiraiya as he charged his student.
        The Leaf genin's eyes widened.  "What's wrong?" he asked as
Jiraiya leapt at him.  The Sannin tackled his student, and mere moments
later a storm of bee stingers passed through where Naruto had stood.
Several struck Jiraiya, who breathed heavily as he and Naruto landed on
the ground not far from Kurobachi.
        More accurately, they landed near where Kurobachi had been, for
the Rock ninja was nowhere to be found.  "What happened?" Naruto asked
as Jiraiya rolled off from on top of him.
        "He was... forming seals," Jiraiya answered slowly.  "Before he
hit the ground."  He struggled to sit up, shaking his head as though to
clear it.  "Damn it," he grunted.  "Some of those stingers were
poisoned."
        Naruto's eyes widened.  "What?"
        Jiraiya groaned painfully as he stood, his knees shaking.  "Damn
it," he repeated.  "I can't believe I walked into that.  Listen, boy.
We have to get out of here and find a hiding place.  He'll be back with
friends."
        Naruto nodded.
        Jiraiya tried to take a step forward and staggered.  "It looks
like... you're going to have to help me," he said weakly.  Naruto jumped
forward to support his teacher.  Jiraiya groaned and let out another
curse as he half-collapsed against Naruto.  "There's a cave out that
way," he said with a vague gesture.  "I don't think the Rock know about
it."
        Naruto nodded, and the two Leaf ninja left the road as the
twilight rapidly darkened into true night.

***********************************************************************

        Anko had not wasted any time after the end of Sakura's duel.
The Leaf special jounin had spent most of the morning closeted with her
grandmother after telling her student to start packing.  They had eaten
a quick lunch at Anko's favorite dango shop, and then set out.  Since
then, Sakura had hardly had time to think, as Anko set a pace far
harsher than she had on the almost leisurely journey south.  Sakura
wondered in the few brief moments she had a chance to catch her breath
how best to once again raise the subject of who Anko's teacher had been.
Anko had only said "nobody important" when Sakura had asked when she had
first learned the jounin's story.  Kimi's accusation - and more
tellingly, Anko's reaction - seemed to make it clear that was a lie.
Still, Sakura was forced to admit to herself, was it really any of her
business?
        Late this afternoon they had finally reached the Hidden Village
of the Leaf, and Anko had lead Sakura straight to the Hokage's office.
Fortunately, Tsunade was still there, and Anko had quickly told her the
entire story of the mission.  The Hokage folded her hands in front of
her face.  "The Mist, huh?" she asked rhetorically.  "That's worrisome."
        Anko nodded.  "That's why I came back as soon as possible."
        "I'll have to write a complaint for the Mizukage."  Tsunade
sighed.  "More paperwork."
        Sakura, standing against the wall next to the door seemingly
forgotten by the two older ninja, frowned.  Surely the paperwork should
be the least of the Hokage's concerns, if Mist ninja were operating in
the Fire Country.  It could start a war.  It almost had, Sakura
realized, thinking of what might have happened if she had lost the match
and Kimi - and through her the Mist - had taken control of the Mitarashi
Clan's port.
        "My grandmother has agreed to having a squad of Leaf ninja
garrisoned in the fortress to protect against further incursions," Anko
said after a moment, fishing a scroll out of her pack and laying it on
Tsunade's desk.
        Tsunade nodded.  "I don't know where I'll find the ninja, but it
has to be done."  She rubbed her forehead.  "I'm probably going to need
to send word to the rest of the alliance or at least the Sand.  At least
I might be able to shut the Waterfall up with this news."
        "The Waterfall?" Anko asked, sounding slightly confused.
        "Now that fighting has started between the Sound and the Valley,
the Waterfall are convinced that this would be a perfect time to invade
the Hill Country."  Tsunade stopped suddenly with another sigh.  "Excuse
me, retake the occupied Waterfall Country.  At least now I can tell them
I don't want to risk war with the Mist and the Rock at once."
        Anko smiled.  "You're the one who was always telling me that
every cloud has a silver lining, Tsunade-sama," she said.
        Tsunade suddenly grinned, a malicious glint in her eyes.  "Keep
that in mind, Anko-chan.  The village council is wrapping up the
assignments for the Chuunin Exam, and they're bumping you up to the
third exam."
        Anko's hands slammed down on Tsunade's desk.  "What?" she asked,
nearly shouting.  "But I always do the second exam!  The other two are
too boring."
        Tsunade's grin widened.  "It was something about too many people
passing the last time.  They've decided to give it to Morino-san."
        "Ibiki!"  Anko's voice was strangled.  "He's the one who passed
almost eighty ninja in the first exam!"  Anko swore viciously.  "I'll
kill him."
        Sakura's eyes were wide.  How could the two of them discuss
something so trivial like this when they'd just been talking about
events that could spark a new Great War?
        "How many times have I told you that there'll be no murders
inside the Leaf, Anko-chan?" Tsunade asked.
        "One hundred and thirty-six, counting today," Anko answered
promptly.  "Couldn't you kick him out, Tsunade-sama?  Pretty please?"
        Tsunade sighed.  "No, Anko-chan," she said.  "Besides, Morino's
already coming up with some good ideas.  He wants to open up the old -"
        Sakura coughed.  "Umm... should I be listening to this?  I will
be taking the exam."  She would make her mother see reason on that.
        Tsunade started.  "I'd forgotten you were there.  If you're
going to be my apprentice, you'll have to learn to speak up more,
Haruno-kun."  Tsunade frowned, glancing down at the notes she had taken.
"Officially I'll be waiting on Anko-chan's formal report, but from what
she's told me so far you did very well on the mission.  I'll be
upgrading the mission rating - it'll still be a C-rank but it'll pay as
a combat mission instead of a diplomatic one.  I assume Anko-chan will
turn in a commendation for your record."
        "Thank you," Sakura said.
        Tsunade scribbled something on her notes.  "Have you found a
team for the exams yet?" she asked.
        "I'm... working on that, Hokage-sama," Sakura answered.
        "You'd better hurry.  There's only a few more days until the
deadline for jounin to sponsor a team."  Tsunade looked up, studying
Sakura carefully.  "Is there anything you need to talk to me about?"
        "No, Hokage-sama," Sakura said.
        Tsunade almost frowned.  "You're dismissed, then.  Anko-chan,
you stay a bit longer.  I need to talk to you."
        Sakura bowed slightly, then slipped out the door and through the
almost empty halls of the administration building.  She nodded to the
vaguely familiar chuunin guard she passed on the way out of the
building, but didn't see anyone else she recognized on her way home.  It
was getting late, so she wasn't surprised when she tested the door and
found it locked.  Sakura fished through her pockets for her house key,
at first accidentally pulling out Naruto's apartment key.  She'd been
planning to quickly check on the apartment before leaving on the mission
but the fight with her mother that morning had driven it from her mind.
        When she finally found her key, Sakura unlocked the door and
slipped inside, dropping her heavy packs with a sigh.  "I'm home," she
called and heard the sound of movement from upstairs in response.  As
she waited for her mother, Sakura headed for the kitchen cabinets.
While she hadn't been starved, for the past few days most of her meals
had been small, cold, and eaten on the move.
        Her mother slowly came downstairs, her green eyes blinking
wearily - she must have gone to sleep early.  "What do you think you're
doing, Sakura?" she asked as she entered the kitchen.
        "I'm just making myself something to -"
        Her mother cut Sakura off angrily.  "I told you not to walk out
that door if you wanted to walk back through it, didn't I?"
        Sakura's eyes widened.  Her mother surely hadn't been serious
about that.  "Mother," she began, only to stop as her mother spoke
again.
        "Don't call me that," she growled at her daughter.  "If I were
your mother you would listen to me, not to the Hokage."
        "Of course you're my mother," Sakura protested.  "But I'm a
ninja now, and I have to-"
        Once again, her mother gave her no opportunity to finish her
sentence.  "Get out of my house then, ninja," she said.
        Sakura couldn't believe her ears.  "You must be joking!  We're a
family!  You can't -"
        Her mother smiled grimly.  "I can.  You're a ninja now, so you
don't need my approval for anything, right?  Being considered an adult
works both ways."  Her eyes narrowed.  "It means taking responsibility
for your choices."
        Sakura couldn't come up with anything to say.  How could this be
happening?  How could her mother do this to her?  Why?  It just didn't
make any sense.  "Mother," she said again, but no matter how hard she
tried she couldn't form any more words.
        "You have one more choice, Sakura."  Her mother's eyes were hard
and uncompromising.  "Either you give up being a ninja or you leave here
forever."
        "Give,"  Sakura said, her voice stumbling.  She tried again.
"Give up being a ninja?"  How could her mother ask that of her?  She'd
trained for years at the academy to be a ninja.  She'd gone through all
the tests, been through so much.  There was so much she still had to do.
She couldn't even begin to imagine herself not being a ninja.  It was
central to everything she was, everything all her friends were.
        "You heard me," her mother said.  For a moment, her eyes
softened.  "Sakura, I'm trying to save you.  I don't want you to -"
        Something inside Sakura gave way, and a torrent of rage began to
flow through her.  She could feel herself trembling with anger, her
fists clenching tightly by her sides.  "Save me?" she asked far too
loudly.  "You want to save me?  I don't need or want to be saved!"  Her
mother shrank back slightly, but Sakura was unable to stop the words
that were pouring out of her.  "I've seen my friends almost get killed
and nothing would stop them from returning to duty.  I can't do any
less!  Sasuke-kun is... Sasuke-kun is out there somewhere, and I've
promised that I'm going to bring him home!
        "You want me to betray all that?  Fine!"  Sakura stomped back
over to the door, picking up her packs.  "Then I don't want to live here
anymore, anyway."  The door was still slightly ajar, and Sakura kicked
it open.  "Goodbye, Amaya-san."  She slammed the door behind herself
with another kick, and this time she didn't pause to hear if her mother
cried.
        Sakura was most of the way down her street before she calmed
enough to consider what to do next.  She could find an inn, of course,
but that was expensive.  For a moment, she considered going to Ino's
house, but as her rage left her she didn't feel anywhere close to ready
to talk her rival.  Particularly since Ino had been less than pleased
with her the last time they'd met.  For all Sakura knew, she might be on
a mission now, too.
        Realizing that she was attracting attention by standing still in
the middle of the street, Sakura began to walk slowly as she considered
her options.  After several steps, she felt for Naruto's key in her
jacket pocket and was relieved to find it.  The more she considered it,
the more Naruto's apartment seemed ideal, at least for now.  She would
have it to herself, and she knew Naruto wouldn't mind.  It would do, for
tonight at least.
        Her decision made, Sakura set off into the rapidly darkening
night.

***********************************************************************

        "So, what do you think, Anko-chan?" Tsunade asked as she
refolded her hands in front of her face.  "About my prospective
apprentice, that is."
        Anko scratched the back of her head.  "Does Shizune-sempai know
she's getting replaced?"
        Tsunade rolled her eyes.  "Anko-chan, be serious."
        "Right," Anko said.  For a long moment, she didn't say anything.
"You say she hadn't been doing any serious training until about a week
before the mission?"
        "Not to my knowledge," Tsunade answered.
        Anko shook her head.  "She's definitely a fast learner," she
said.  The special jounin paused again, pondering her next words.  "Her
taijutsu is about average for a late first-year genin, which is a lot
better than it was six months ago.  I'd say it was too weak for the
exams, but she was wearing those old-fashioned weights the whole time.
Take them off, and she might be fine.  Her raw ninjutsu and genjutsu
skills are reasonable, with a bit more native talent in genjutsu."
        "That's a pretty glowing recommendation from you," Tsunade said.
        "Well, I'm not done yet," Anko said.  "She doesn't have a
chuunin's breadth of techniques yet, but that can fixed easily enough.
Her chakra reserves stink, though.  They're barely acceptable for a
first-year genin, but only barely.  For an exam veteran..." Anko trailed
off, shaking her head.
        Tsunade looked Anko up and down.  "I sense a but coming up."
        "Her chakra control is downright scary," Anko said.  "She can
use one-handed seals easily, and she managed to pull off a ninjutsu
she'd only read about perfectly on the first try.  I almost laughed when
Hatake mentioned he was teaching her the Perfect Replication Technique,
but with that much control she's able to pull it off with a little
chakra to spare."  Anko paused.  "In control, she's easily at least mid-
chuunin-level already."
        Tsunade smiled.  "That's why I recommended her for this mission.
Still disappointed you didn't get your first choice?"
        "I would have been a lot less nervous during the fight with the
Hyuuga girl," Anko answered, "but Sakura-chan won, so I can't really
complain.  Anything else?"
        "What about her personality?" Tsunade asked.  "You're the least
biased person who's spent time with her on a mission."
        Anko rolled her eyes.  "She reminds me of Kurenai-chan," she
said.
        "Yuuhi-san?"
        "Right.  Like her, Sakura's very restrained.  I couldn't get her
to take a swing at me outside of practice."  Anko grinned.  "As you
know, I'm pretty good at that."
        Tsunade shook her head.  "You're lucky Shizune forgave you,
Anko-chan."
        Anko's grin just widened.  "They aren't exactly the same,
though.  I don't think Kurenai-chan gets angry at all, but Sakura
certainly does.  She just holds it in."  Anko grin widened even further,
something Tsunade might not have thought possible.  "I'd like a front
row seat for the fireworks if she ever lets all that anger out at once."
        "Is she stable?" Tsunade asked, worry suddenly in her voice.
        Anko blinked.  "Oh, yes, of course.  Nothing that bad."  Anko
suddenly smiled again.  "Though I don't know if you want to trust my
definition of stability."
        Tsunade sighed.  "I'm afraid I have to for now.  So, final
verdict?"
        "She's a good candidate for the exams, which she wasn't last
time," Anko said.  "I'd give her about even odds of making it to the
third examination, if the exams were held today."
        Tsunade nodded.  "Good," she said.  She paused a moment, then
asked, "Did she mention anything about any personal problems?"
        "What?" Anko asked.  "No.  Why?"
        "Hatake-san mentioned to me that he thought she was having
family problems," Tsunade answered.
        Anko shrugged.  "I don't think she said anything about her
family or anything personal for that matter.  I don't even think she
mentioned the Uchiha kid to me."
        "All right," Tsunade said.  "You can go now, Anko-chan.  I need
to finish up this paperwork so I can go get something to drink."

***********************************************************************

[Day Eighteen]

        Naruto was starting to get worried.  Jiraiya had seemed to get
stronger as they'd gotten nearer to the cave last night, and by the time
they reached it he had been walking on his own.  Once they'd settled
themselves into the cave, the Toad Hermit had promptly fallen asleep.
Naruto had stayed awake and kept watch as best he could, but much to his
relief there had been no sign of pursuit or searchers.  His teacher's
breathing had remained strong and steady throughout the night, and had
Naruto not known better he would never have guessed that he had been
poisoned.
        Yet it was now well past dawn, and Jiraiya had not awakened.  He
still breathed normally and his heart still beat strongly, but no matter
how Naruto tried he could not wake the old ninja.  Naruto checked the
places where Jiraiya had been stung last night, but the wounds looked
normal to him.  However, though he had eventually passed the mandatory
first aid classes in the academy, he knew it would be charitable to
describe his medical knowledge as minimal.  It was obvious to him that
something was wrong, but he could not figure out what it was or how to
fix it.
        Considering his options, Naruto dug through Jiraiya's packs for
the maps he knew were there.  Once he found them, he began to unroll
them until he found the map of the Earth Country, wishing he had paid
more attention when Jiraiya had been describing their route.  After
several minutes of futile searching, he gave up trying to find where
they were on the map.
        Still, Naruto knew that they couldn't stay here.  His many years
of pranks in the Leaf Village had taught him that a stationary hiding
place was a bad idea when your pursuers knew the area well.  Surely the
Rock ninja knew their own country.  Even if they weren't aware of this
cave in particular, they would likely know that this area was worth
searching.  And even if the cave was secure, he needed to take Jiraiya
somewhere where he could be looked at by a doctor.
        Naruto walked to the mouth of the cave, searching for any
inspiration he could find.  There was the road they had left, just
barely visible in the distance.  The sun was over there, and it was
morning so that way was east. That meant that they'd been heading
northwest.  Hadn't the road forked a ways back, too?  There hadn't been
any villages on the road since then that he could remember.  Naruto took
another look around, and frowned.  Was that smoke further up the road?
Possibly that meant there was a town there.
        Naruto turned back to the maps.  After several more minutes of
furious searching he still hadn't located where they were.  He really
wasn't very good at this, he admitted to himself.  He'd just have to
head cross-country toward the smoke and hope that it was a town.  If he
was lucky, there wouldn't be any Rock ninja there and it would have a
doctor.
        As he slowly repacked the maps, Naruto realized how risky this
was, but he knew he had no other choice.  Observing the packs, Naruto
sighed and began to unpack them.  There was no way he could carry all
the packs and Jiraiya as well.  He quickly repacked one pack with what
he thought were the necessities.  Then he hid the remaining packs deep
in the cave.   With luck, he and Jiraiya could return for the rest.
Carefully picking up his teacher, Naruto set off.
        When the journey was over, Naruto would remember only a tiny
fraction of it.  The rough, rocky terrain blended together in his mind,
and luckily he didn't see another soul on the route.  Far more slowly
than he had hoped, the smoke on the horizon grew nearer and more
defined.  The sun rose higher and higher in the sky, but it did nothing
to dispel the early autumn chill.  At one point Naruto remembered
drawing far too close to the road and having to turn away from the smoke
to maintain a safe distance.
        It was well past noon when Naruto was able to tell that the
source of the smoke was, as he had hoped, the chimneys of a small town.
The town sat near the foot of a small mountain, and as he drew nearer
Naruto saw that it was unwalled.  Two trails left the town, one heading
toward the main road and another climbing up the side of the mountain.
As he cautiously approached, Naruto circled around toward the trail
leading to the road.  That would be the least suspicious way to enter,
he knew.
        Much to his relief, he saw no sign of Rock ninja, but he also
knew that he wasn't certain what to look for.  There was nobody at the
entrance to the town, so Naruto simply headed down the biggest road he
could find.  The first person he saw was a young boy who was
entertaining himself by bouncing a ball against the wall of a building -
probably his house.
        "Hey, kid," Naruto said as he shifted Jiraiya's weight onto a
slightly more comfortable location.  "Do you know where I can find a
doctor?"
        The boy caught the ball, frowning as he turned to look at
Naruto.  "My name's Kaneda, not kid," he said.
        "Sorry," Naruto replied, "but my grandfather's hurt.  Is there a
doctor in this town?"
        The boy seemed to think a moment, then shouted "Mom!"
        In instants, a young woman appeared in the doorway to the house.
"What is it, Kaneda?"  She quickly saw Naruto, her eyes widening as she
saw him carrying a man much larger than himself.  "What do you want?"
she asked.  Naruto repeated his question, and the woman nodded.  "Head
straight down this street and take the second right," she answered
quickly.  "You can't miss it."
        "Thank you," Naruto said.
        "I hope your grandfather is all right," the woman said as Naruto
turned to leave.  Naruto thanked her again, then followed her
directions.  He quickly found the small doctor's office, but had to
struggle slightly to open the door without dropping Jiraiya.  This done,
he slipped inside.
        Inside, a middle-aged man - almost certainly the doctor - was
removing a cast from the arm of a younger man.  Naruto carefully set
Jiraiya down on one of the several empty cots scattered about the dark,
cluttered room.  Naruto eyed the room, so different from the large,
clean hospital in the Leaf Village suspiciously.  Was this really a
doctor's office?
        The doctor finished removing the cast, and his patient flexed
his arm.  "Thanks," the young man said, smiling.  "Kaneda will be glad I
can play catch with him again."
        The doctor just nodded, turning to Naruto.  "Now, what are you
here for, then?" he asked as the younger man slipped out.
        Naruto had considered his answer to this question carefully on
the way.  "My grandfather was stung by a bee last night," he said after
a moment to make sure he could keep his story straight.  "He was weak
for a little while but got better before we went to bed.  Now he won't
wake up, so I brought him here."
        The doctor raised an eyebrow.  "You carried him here?  You must
be pretty strong," he answered, heading over to examine Jiraiya.  "Show
me where you grandfather was stung."  Naruto complied, and the doctor
frowned.  "You should have said he was stung more than once," he told
Naruto.
        "Can you help him?" Naruto asked.
        "Probably," the doctor answered.  "Can you pay, boy?"
        Naruto nodded.  Money had been one of the things he'd been sure
to take with him rather than leaving it in the cave.  "Yes," he said.
        The doctor nodded back, stroking his chin as he studied Jiraiya.
"It sounds like your grandfather had some sort of allergic reaction," he
said.  He gestured over to one of the other cots.  "Stay out of the way,
boy, and I'll see what I can do."

***********************************************************************

        When Sakura awoke, it took her several moments to realize where
she was.  The bare walls of Naruto's spare room stared back at her
slowly blinking, weary eyes, and the reality of what had happened last
night began to sink in.  Her mother had kicked her out!  How could that
have possibly happened to her?  Back in the academy, she'd listened
bemusedly when other students had complained about their parents.  She'd
always gotten along fine with her mother, and she liked to imagine she
would have gotten along well with her father also.  Ever since the
Chuunin Exam, that had changed, though.  Still, Sakura had never
imagined that it could come to this.
        Sakura threw aside the bed covers and slowly sat up.  She stood
and began to undress - she had not felt comfortable undressing for bed
in a strange place last night.  As she tossed her dirty clothes into a
pile she stumbled over toward where she had dropped her packs.  If she
was counting right, she ought to still have one set of clean clothes.
She breathed a sigh of relief as she confirmed that this was indeed the
case.
        A few minutes later, she was dressed - weights and all - and had
time to consider what to do next.  Her stomach rumbled, reminding her of
one pressing concern.  She fished through her packs again, finding the
last of the rations she had packed for the trail.  As she quickly ate
and began to feel slightly more human, she began to consider what needed
to be done.
        She wasn't going to let this stop her from taking the exam, she
knew.  That was the whole point.  She couldn't just sit on her borrowed
bed and cry.  She needed to train; she needed to make sure she had a
team.  First, she'd need to find Ino and talk to her.  She'd need to see
if she could find Kakashi to help her train.  For both of those, she'd
need to visit the Hokage's office to make sure they weren't on a mission
or something.
        That would let her take care of something else, also.  Ninja
were required to keep their current residences on file, so that they
could be reached easily.  Her file, of course, listed her mother's
house.  That had changed, and she would need to make that known.  Sakura
grimaced.  She'd prefer not to have to say anything, but that wasn't an
option.
        With a sigh, Sakura left Naruto's apartment and headed on her
way.  The streets were mostly empty and she made good time, but she had
to go out of her away to avoid her house.  This altered route took her
near the Yamanaka flower shop and Sakura hesitated a moment before
stopping there.  If Ino wasn't on a mission, it ought to be her shift,
Sakura thought, and she could get this out of the way quickly.
        Ino was indeed in the shop, and she glanced up as Sakura
entered.  "Hello, Forehead," she said cheerfully.  "Back from your
mission?"
        Sakura nodded.  "I'm sure you know why I'm here, Ino-pig.  I
don't have much longer to wait on your decision."
        Ino grimaced.  "It's not like we have much of a choice.  There
are other teams missing members, but most of them are a lot older than
us.  They probably wouldn't give you or us the time of day.  Even if we
were part of the so-called Rookie Nine, we're the part that didn't make
it to the finals."
        "So your answer is yes?" Sakura asked, relieved.  Much the same
thing had occurred to her.
        "Provisionally," Ino said.  "It'll be our lives on the line in
the second exam.  Chouji and I want to be sure we can count on you."
        "What do you mean?"
        "The three of us will meet tomorrow before lunch at the training
grounds, and we'll see if this will work out."  Ino smiled.  "Call it a
test."
        "All right," Sakura said.  "I'll be there."  She turned to
leave.
        "Sakura!" Ino called, and the other girl stopped.  "Are you
okay?"
        Sakura glanced back.  "What?"
        "You aren't very... cheerful this morning," Ino said.  "Did
something happen on the mission?"
        "Nothing happened," Sakura said.  "I'm fine."  She paused.
"Sorry, Ino, but I don't want to talk about it."  Before Ino could say
anything more, she had left and headed on her way to the administration
building.
        When she reached the appropriate office, it was being manned by
Shizune.  Sakura resisted the urge to grimace.  This guaranteed that
Tsunade would hear personally about this.  Shizune glanced up from the
piles of paperwork she was sorting, apparently determining what required
the Hokage's attention.  "Good morning, Sakura-chan," she said.  "If you
need to see Tsunade-sama, I can send you right in.  Her first
appointment was over quickly."
        Sakura shook her head.  "I just need a change of address form,
Shizune-san."
        Shizune blinked.  "A change of address form?" she asked,
surprised.
        "Yes," was all Sakura said, ignoring the none-too-subtle
prompting to explain.
        After a long moment, Shizune pulled out the appropriate form and
a pen.  "Here you go," she said.
        "Thank you."  Sakura quickly began to fill out the form.  She'd
double-checked the address of Naruto's apartment before leaving.  It
took her only a few minutes to write down the appropriate details and
sign her name at the bottom of the form.  She handed it back to Shizune.
        Tsunade's attendant's eyes widened as she took the form.  "Isn't
that Naruto-kun's place?"
        Sakura reluctantly nodded.  "Yes.  There won't be a problem with
that, will there?  I'm sure Naruto won't mind me borrowing the place for
now."
        "No," Shizune said slowly.  "But... why?"
        "It's," Sakura began, only to trail off.  After a long moment,
she started again.  "It's a personal issue," she admitted.  Seeing
Shizune's mouth beginning to open and easily guessing what her next
question was, Sakura continued, "I can handle it myself, Shizune-san.
You needn't trouble yourself."
        Now it was Shizune's turn to reluctantly nod.  "If you say so,"
she said dubiously.
        Sakura nodded back, much more firmly.  "Do you know if Kakashi-
sensei is in the village?"
        "He's on a mission," Shizune answered.  "He won't be back for a
few weeks, at least."
        "I see," Sakura said as she turned to leave.  "Thank you."
Shizune didn't stop her.
        After she had left, Tsunade slipped into the room from the other
doorway, which lead to the hallway her own office was located on.  "Was
that who I thought it was?" she asked.
        Shizune rose, handing Tsunade the form.  "Yes, Tsunade-sama,"
she answered.
        Tsunade raised an eyebrow as she read the form.  "Sakura-chan is
moving into Naruto-kun's place?"
        Shizune nodded.  "She said it was because of a personal issue."
        "I heard," Tsunade said.  She dropped the form back on Shizune's
desk.  "It seems Hatake was right.  I'm already sick of beating around
the bush on this, Shizune."  Tsunade smiled.  "I'm afraid I'm going to
have to cheat a little."
        "Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked.
        "The rules say that I'm not supposed to interfere with internal
family matters unless requested."  Tsunade snorted.  The worst problems
were usually the ones where no one wanted to ask for the Hokage's
intervention.
        "That's correct," Shizune said after a moment.
        Tsunade gazed at the ceiling.  "However, it occurs to me that I
don't know anything about the Haruno.  That's really not good for the
Hokage, I think, particularly since I plan to make Sakura-chan my new
apprentice once she's ready.  Don't you agree, Shizune?"
        "Yes, Hokage-sama," Shizune answered, smiling.
        "Do me a favor, Shizune," Tsunade said.  "Go through the
archives and dig up anything interesting you can find on the Haruno."
She grinned.  "And if you happen to find anything that might shed some
light on the problem, let me know."
        "Yes, Hokage-sama," Shizune replied.  "Shall I start now?"
        "Just a moment," Tsunade said.  "I believe I need you to summon
the village council first.  That's what I was coming here for to begin
with."
        "What about?" Shizune asked, surprised.
        "I just received an interesting message from the Mizukage,"
Tsunade answered.  Her eyes were grim.  "He seems to have preempted my
request for an apology for the incident down south."
        Shizune's eyes widened.  "War?"
        "No, thank the gods," Tsunade said.  "He's already sent an
apology for the over-enthusiasm of his jounin in pressing her
'legitimate claim to the Mitarashi Clan.'"
        "And?" Shizune asked, sensing that there was more to come.
        "As a sign of good faith," Tsunade said slowly, "the Mizukage
would like to send Mitarashi Kimi's genin team to participate in our
upcoming Chuunin Exam."

***********************************************************************

[Day Nineteen]

        Naruto groaned as he slowly awoke.  It took him several moments
to recognize the cluttered doctor's office.  The doctor had thankfully
allowed Naruto to stay here overnight, rather than forcing him to leave
his "grandfather."  As soon as he was fully awake, Naruto jumped off the
cot he had slept on and raced over to check on Jiraiya.  The old ninja
was still breathing easily, but there was no sign that he was near
awakening.
        "You don't need to do my job for me," the doctor said as he
descended a set of stairs in the back of the office.  Evidently the
doctor lived above his office, but he had told Naruto in no uncertain
terms not to venture either upstairs or downstairs to the basement
without permission.  He pushed Naruto out of the way unceremoniously,
bending over to examine Jiraiya.
        After several moments, the doctor spoke.  "I don't believe I've
ever seen a reaction to bee stings quite like this, boy."
        Naruto gulped.  "Does that mean you can't help him?"
        The doctor turned to him.  "I might be able to, if you tell me
the truth."
        "The truth?" Naruto asked.
        "Are you two having some sort of ninja problem, boy?"  The
doctor frowned.  "There are a number of poisons that might have caused
this, but unless you tell me more I won't be able to help."
        Naruto began to weigh his options carefully.  The doctor had
seemed nice enough, but he was from Earth Country.  There was no telling
what he might do if he found out that they were Leaf ninja.  He might
turn them in.  After far too long, Naruto answered.  "There were ninja
fighting," he answered slowly.  "Grandfather and I hid, but he got stung
by some bees that were after one of the ninja."
        The doctor sighed.  "Summoned bees, huh?  You should have told
me that at the start, boy.  That changes everything."  He turned back to
Jiraiya, stroking his chin in thought.  "I still should be able to help,
though it might be a couple days still before he's ready to move."  He
glared at Naruto.  "I'll be charging extra since you wouldn't tell me
all the details."
        Naruto just nodded nervously.  "All right."
        The doctor's attention returned to Jiraiya.  "Go down to the
basement, boy.  In the left corner there'll be a big green box that says
antidotes.  Bring that up for me."
        Naruto nodded and slipped down the rickety stairs that led to
the basement.  Large crates littered the dark room, but after his eyes
adjusted Naruto was able to see well enough to maneuver his way through
it.  He quickly found the antidotes, and easily lifted the metal box and
carried it back upstairs.  He carefully placed it on the table next to
Jiraiya's cot.
        Without a word the doctor opened the box and fished out a small
bottle half-full with clear liquid.  He carefully checked the label,
then poured a tiny amount into a syringe.  After double-checking both
the label and the amount, he rolled up Jiraiya's sleeve and injected
him.  "You're lucky I used to practice in the Rock Village, boy," he
commented.
        Naruto resisted the urge to back away nervously.  "Are you a
ninja?" he asked.
        The doctor laughed suddenly.  "No, of course not.  There aren't
enough medical ninja to run an entire hospital.  They save themselves
for the toughest cases and let us normal people handle the rest."  He
smiled.  "Not everyone who lives in a Hidden Village is a ninja."
        Naruto was smart enough not to say that he knew that.  "Why did
you leave?" he asked after a moment.
        The doctor seemed to study Naruto carefully.  "I got sick of the
blood."  He paused, and anything else he was about to say was lost as
Jiraiya suddenly coughed.
        The old ninja's eyes flickered open.  "What..." he began to say
weakly, only to trail off into another fit of coughing.  He glanced
about.  "Naruto?"
        Naruto raced over to his teacher's side.  "I'm here," he said.
"We're safe."
        Jiraiya began to struggle to rise.  "Doubt... that."
        The doctor pushed him down with one hand.  "Easy there, old
fellow.  Those bees that stung you were a special type.  It'll be a few
days before you can work the poison out of your system."
        Jiraiya seemed to notice the other man for the first time.
"Who... you?" he asked.
        "I'm a doctor."  The doctor smiled.  "You're lucky your grandson
brought you to the one doctor in this part of the country who knows
ninja poisons."
        "That so," Jiraiya got out, glancing at Naruto.  He began to
cough again.  "Still tired."
        The doctor nodded.  "Go ahead and sleep."  Jiraiya closed his
eyes, and within moments began to snore.
        "How can he still be tired?" Naruto asked.  "He just slept for
days!"
        "He wasn't really asleep," the doctor answered, stroking his
chin.  "Those bees used a special type of paralyzing poison on him."
The doctor smiled.  "The easiest way to explain it is that it kept him
from waking up, but it also kept him from falling completely asleep."
        "Oh," Naruto answered.  How could somebody be asleep but not
asleep?
        "Now," the doctor said, his smile vanishing, "let us discuss the
matter of payment."

***********************************************************************

        Sakura groaned as she observed the pile of clothes she had made.
She had worn her last clean outfit yesterday, but had been so distracted
by other matters that she hadn't remembered to do laundry.  With a sigh,
she slipped on the least filthy set of clothing and began to load the
rest into one of her empty packs.  If she remembered correctly, there
was a laundry room on the first floor of Naruto's apartment building.
She ought to have time to do a quick load before she was supposed to
meet Ino and Chouji.
        Once her clothes were ready, Sakura ventured into Naruto's room,
searching for detergent.  It took her several moments to find it, and
she was not surprised to see that Naruto was almost out.  Sakura made a
mental note to buy some more - even if she found somewhere else to stay
before she needed it, it was only polite to replace what she had used.
        The thought reminded her that she needed to decide whether or
not too find somewhere else to stay.  She could probably afford an
apartment of her own, even with the relatively low pay Leaf ninja had
been receiving since the Sand's attack.  It probably would be even
smaller than Naruto's place, but it would be hers.  On the other hand,
she hoped that she would be able to make her mother see reason before
too long.  For the short time she planned to be on her own, it really
didn't make sense to seek out somewhere else to live.  Naruto's
apartment suited her needs well enough.
        Sakura carefully locked the door to the apartment behind her and
found her way to the laundry downstairs.  There were only three washers
and an equal number of dryers, far too few for a building this size, but
fortunately none of the machines were in use right now.  Sakura quickly
loaded one of the washers, then sat down on top of a dryer, as there
were no chairs in the room.  Determined not to waste any time, she
pulled Kakashi's scroll on the Perfect Replication Technique out of her
pack and set to studying it.  She still couldn't get images that looked
or felt very solid consistently, and she was certain that she was still
wasting some chakra when she used the technique.  Perhaps reading
Kakashi's hints one more time would give her some ideas.
        Her laundry was about done when Sakura heard someone
approaching.  She looked up to see a rather plump lady struggling with
an overfull laundry basket in the doorway.  Sakura set down her scroll
and jumped to her feet.  "Let me help you with that," she said, easily
stabilizing the basket before it could slip out of the older woman's
hands.
        "Thank you," the woman gasped out as the two set the basket down
near the washers.  She glanced up looking at Sakura.  "I don't think
I've seen you here before.  Did you just move in?"
        "Yes," Sakura answered after a moment.  There was no need to
elaborate on her situation.
        "Not many ninja in this part of town," the woman commented as
she began to load the remaining two washers with her clothing.  "You
people can usually afford better."
        Sakura hadn't considered that, but she realized it was true.
After a moment, she shrugged.  "I'm only a genin.  C-rank and D-rank
missions don't pay that much."
        "I suppose," the woman said.  "Which apartment is yours?  I
didn't know one had opened up."
        "I'm borrowing one up on the third floor from my teammate,"
Sakura admitted.  "He's away on a -"  Sakura stopped suddenly when a
wary look entered the other woman's eyes.
        "You aren't teammates with that Uzumaki brat, are you?" she
asked.
        Sakura resisted the urge to clench a fist, remembering how rude
Naruto's neighbors had been when she had mentioned his name to them.
"Yes, I am," she said slowly.
        The woman's eyes widened, and seemingly unknowingly she backed
away from Sakura.  "Oh my."
        This time Sakura's fists did clench.  Whatever Naruto had done,
it couldn't deserve this sort of reaction.  Ordinarily she might have
let it pass, but right now her mental state was not conducive to such
restraint.  "He isn't a contagious disease," she said, letting a bit too
much anger into her voice.
        The woman shuddered.  "Oh no," she said, obviously forcing
herself to take a step closer to Sakura.  "It must be terrible for you,
having to be with that monster."
        Sakura couldn't believe her ears.  She had met people who
deserved to be called monsters, but Naruto was most definitely not one
of them, no matter what he had done to these people.  She unthinkingly
glared at woman, who backed away again.  "If you had ever met a real
monster," Sakura said after a moment, "you would never say such a
thing."
        "A real monster!" the woman exclaimed.  "If that thing isn't a
-" She cut off suddenly, glancing fearfully over her her shoulder.
        Sakura had to remind herself that violence wasn't called for
here.  "Naruto is a person, not a thing."  That was it.  No matter what
Naruto had done, these people had clearly had it coming.  Sakura knew
that she had said more than her share of unkind things to Naruto in the
past, most of which he had deserved, but this was just insane.
        The woman looked as though she was going to say something, then
she grimaced and turned around rapidly, stalking out of the laundry
room.  Sakura thought that she heard her muttering under her breath
about a law as she walked away.  A moment later, Sakura's laundry
finished washing, but Sakura just stared at the retreating figure until
the woman vanished from sight.  What could a law possibly have to do
with this?
        Sakura pushed the matter out of her mind.  She had far more
pressing concerns right now.  The downright inexcusable attitude
Naruto's neighbors displayed, vexing though it was, could wait.  Sakura
returned to studying her scroll.  Once her laundry had been washed and
dried, she returned to Naruto's apartment and gratefully changed into a
now-clean outfit.  As always, she relished the few brief moments of
freedom while she took off her weights to change pants.  By now,
though, she could put them back on without hesitating.  It was almost
scary how quickly she had become accustomed to the additional weight,
but a part of her was glad Kakashi wasn't here to insist that she move
on to a heavier set of weights.
        Sakura left the apartment and headed toward the training
grounds.  Along the way, she passed the ninja academy, and she smiled
slightly as she watched the younger students, already outside for lunch
and recess.  Had it really been less than a year since she'd been an
academy student herself?  Sakura's hand went to her short hair as she
thought of how much she had changed in so short a time.
        Sitting on a bench watching his students, Iruka looked up and
saw Sakura.  The chuunin waved at her, and after a moment Sakura waved
back, forcing a smile to her lips.  The young students, just noticing
her watching them, began to mutter amongst themselves.  Sakura couldn't
hear what they were saying, but she could guess well enough, having
participated in many such conversations herself.  Few things were more
exciting to an academy student than a glimpse of a young genin, someone
they might hope to be in a few short years.
        With another wave at Iruka, Sakura continued on her way to the
training grounds.  When she arrived, her two prospective teammates were
sitting underneath one of of the many trees that lined the training
ground.  Chouji was, predictably, chomping his way through a bag of
potato chips.  Sakura smiled at this, then straightened her face,
feeling a little guilty.  She had never thought much of "the fat kid"
back in the academy and had indulged in no small amount of gloating that
Ino was stuck with him as a teammate.  Yet now she had seen him fight in
the Chuunin Exam and had heard of the lengths he had gone to on the
mission to retrieve Sasuke.  How could she have been so shallow back in
the academy?
        Sakura glanced at the half-hidden sun, confirming that it was
still before noon.  "Good morning, Ino, Akimichi-kun."
        Chouji smiled around a mouthful of chips.  "Call me Chouji, if
we're going to be teammates."
        Sakura nodded.  "All right," she said.
        Ino stood.  "You're late, Forehead," she said.
        A thought occurred to Sakura, and she smiled evilly.  "Sorry,
Ino-pig.  I got lost."
        Ino's eyebrow twitched.  "How could you possibly -"
        Sakura, her senses honed by days of avoiding Anko's attempts to
deposit various reptiles on her body, suddenly whirled about, a hand
going to one of the kunai strapped to her leg.  Ino's eyes widened as an
instant later Sarutobi Asuma appeared, standing what would have been
directly behind Sakura.
        The mountain of a jounin smiled widely.  "You really are
Kakashi's student, Sakura-kun," he said.  He left it unsaid whether he
referred to Sakura's danger sense or her excuse for tardiness.
        Sakura slowly relaxed.  "Thank you," she said, preferring to
assume the more complimentary explanation for Asuma's statement.
        "I understand you want to take the Chuunin Exam with my
students," Asuma said.
        "Yes," Sakura answered.  "I do."
        Asuma nodded.  "Ino and Chouji have asked me to make sure that
you won't be a burden."  Ino nodded.  "Hey, Chouji!" Asuma called.  "Put
down those chips and come over here!"
        Chouji quickly overturned the mostly empty bag over his open
mouth.  Throwing the bag aside he rose and walked over to where the
other three ninja stood.  "So what's the test?" Chouji asked.
        Asuma smiled.  "While I certainly could test Sakura-kun here, I
think it's more important that you two test her skills yourselves.  It
will be your lives on the line, after all, not mine."  After a moment,
all three ninja nodded.  "Sakura-kun?" Asuma asked as he pulled out a
small bell on a string.  "Kakashi gave your team the bell test, right?"
        Sakura nodded.  If he intended to give the three the bell test,
that would be easily passed, since she could explain the real point of
the test to the other two.  Most likely he had something else planned.
What was it going to be?
        "The bell test?" Chouji asked.
        "It's a test for new genin the Third Hokage developed," Asuma
explained.  "The genin team tries to steal two bells from the jounin
teacher."  Asuma smiled.  "That's not what we're doing today, though."
        Sakura nodded again, this time to herself.  Then her eyes
widened as Asuma handed her the single bell.  "What?" she asked,
startled.
        "Sakura-kun," Asuma said, "I'll give you a five minute head-
start.  After that, Ino and Chouji will have one hour to steal the bell
from you."
        "What?" Ino protested.
        "I thought she was the one getting tested," Chouji grumbled.
        "She is," Asuma answered.  "You remember the second part of the
Chuunin Exam, right?  This is a chance for Sakura to prove that she
could be trusted to defend a scroll and a chance for you to practice
taking one."
        After a long moment, Ino nodded.  "I'm not going to go easy on
you, Sakura."
        Sakura smiled.  "Good," she said, slipping the bell into her
pocket.  "I won't be able to prove I'm not burden otherwise."
        Chouji sighed.  "This would be easier with Shikamaru."  Sakura
had to agree.  The new chuunin's shadow techniques would make this test
very... troublesome.
        Asuma laughed.  "Shikamaru-kun won't be there during the exams,
Chouji," he said.  After Chouji nodded, his face turned serious.  "To
make things a little bit simpler, I'll make it a rule that Sakura can't
leave the training grounds. I shouldn't have to tell you three not to
make any killing or maiming attacks."  He paused, and when no one
disagreed, he nodded.  "Are you ready?"
        "Yes," the three genin said in unison.
        Asuma pulled out a stopwatch.  "Sakura's five minutes begin...
now!"
        Without pausing to respond, Sakura turned around and raced for
the trees.  She was no jounin.  She wasn't going to keep the bell out of
Ino's hands without a plan. She already had an idea that might work, but
she was going to need all five minutes to pull it off.  As soon as she
was out of site of the clearing, Sakura jumped onto a convenient branch
and abruptly changed direction, heading for where Kakashi had given the
new Team Seven the bell test.  Thankfully, that training ground was not
in use, and Sakura began to prepare, her hands quickly moving through
sets of seals.
        A bit less than five minutes later, when Ino and Chouji burst
out of the tree line and onto to lake shore, Sakura stood in the center
of the water.  She smiled mockingly at the pair.  "Can you walk on
water, Ino-pig?" she asked.
        Ino glared at Sakura.  "We aren't academy students," she said.
"A little trick like that won't stop us."  She glanced at her partner.
"Chouji," she said sharply.
        The boy nodded, veering off to circle around behind Sakura ass
Ino approached from the front.  Sakura merely stood still as the other
two ninja neared, the mocking smile never leaving her face.  Cautiously,
Ino and Chouji began to approach, ready for a sudden attack that never
came, not even when they worked out the confidence to attack themselves.
Sakura merely laughed, dancing through their blows with inhuman speed.
        "Is that all you two can do?" she asked.
        Ino grinned back at her.   "We're just getting started."  She
broke away from Sakura, beginning to form seals.  Chouji pressed his
attacks, but now he seemed more concerned with keeping Sakura from
running away than going for the bell.  Sakura smiled as she guessed the
technique Ino was performing.  "Are you sure you want to use that on the
water?" she asked as she darted aside, narrowly avoiding one of Chouji's
punches.
        Ino smiled.  "This technique's a little different," she said as
she finished the seals.  "Paraly -"  Sakura suddenly plunged into the
water, and Ino cut off.  "Spread out," she barked at Chouji.  "She'll be
vulnerable when she surfaces."
        Chouji nodded and complied.  For several moments it seemed that
Sakura had no intention of returning to the surface.  Then coils of mist
began to form over the lake, rapidly thickening and spreading.  Ino
cursed.  "We won't be able to see a thing," she snarled.
        "Mist Concealment Technique," Chouji commented.  "Like that time
in River Country."  The two ninja traded a look moments before they lost
sight of each other in the mist.
        Once the mist had finished thickening, Sakura pulled herself
above the water behind Ino, but despite her best efforts made a small
splash.  Ino whirled about, racing in the direction of the sound.  She
suddenly froze as Chouji called out, "She's over this way!" as he ran in
the opposite direction.
        "She's made replications!" Ino yelled back.  Now there was the
sound of at least a dozen Sakura moving about the lake.
        On the lake shore, sitting on top of one of the three wooden
poles, the real Sakura smiled.  They were already halfway through with
the test, and her two opponents had spent their whole time trying to
fight her fake replications.  It had been difficult to keep the first
clone real-seeming in broad daylight and moving fast enough to avoid the
pairs' attacks.  Once they'd given her an excuse to use the Mist
Concealment Technique, though, things had gotten easier.  Now she was
creating little more than wisps of color and the sounds of splashing,
moving rapidly over the lake shore.  If her chakra held out, she could
keep this going for the rest of the test.
        Sakura suddenly started.  Was that the sound of movement behind
her?  Sakura jumped from her perch mere moments before several kunai hit
where she'd been standing.  Most likely, the were positioned to pin her
clothing to to the wood, but Sakura didn't have time to check as her
gaze followed the kunai's path back to where Ino stood on an overhanging
tree branch.
        "You're a little over-confident, Forehead," the other girl
commented.  "I guessed that you'd make a break for it once you raised
the mist, but I'd never have thought you'd just sit back and watch."
        Sakura resisted the urge to curse.  "Replications?" she asked,
gesturing back at the mist-covered lake.
        "Of course," Ino answered.
        Sakura released both the mist and the Perfect Replication
Technique.  When the mist began to clear, the lake's surface was empty.
Where was Chouji?  Sakura's hand went to her kunai as she glanced about,
careful to keep an eye on the smirking Ino.  Too late, she guessed where
the attack would come from.
        Chouji burst from the earth behind Sakura, roaring out "Partial
Multi-size Technique!"  Swollen to gargantuan size, one arm struck out,
grabbing Sakura before she could dodge or position a replacement.
Sakura began to struggle, slowly managing to pull out her kunai.  If she
could cut Chouji's over-sized hand, she might be able to get loose.
        "It's too late," Ino said as she jumped down from the tree.  Her
hands racing through a far-too-familiar set of seals.  "Mind-Body Switch
Technique!"
        An instant later, Ino's body slumped to the ground as Sakura's
stopped its struggles.  "Ino?" Chouji asked carefully.
        Sakura cursed fiercely in her mind as an alien smile formed on
her lips.  "Mockingbird," her voice said from her lips.  "It's me."
Sakura tried to remember how she had managed to eject her unwanted
passenger in the last exam, but now matter how she struggled she could
not replicate the feat.
        Chouji released Sakura's body, his hand and arm shrinking back
to a human size.  Sakura's hand went into her pocket, fishing out the
bell and tossing it to Chouji.  The boy caught it easily.  "That's it,"
Ino said through Sakura's lips.
        Asuma appeared out of nowhere, nodding as he glanced at his
stopwatch.  "Just short of forty-five minutes.  Not bad," he said.
        Ino smiled one last smile on Sakura's face, then formed her
rival's hands into a single seal.  "Release!"  Sakura stumbled as
control returned to her body.
        Ino slowly rose.  "Too bad for you, Forehead," she said.
        Sakura's eyebrow twitched.  She'd come so far since the last
exam, but not far enough.  She wasn't going to let it end like this.
She'd find another team somehow, train harder, and beat Ino once and for
all in the exam.
        "Does she pass?" Chouji asked suddenly.  Sakura froze.  Of
course she didn't; they'd gotten the bell, after all.
        "That's really up to you two," Asuma answered.  "She'll be your
teammate, not mine.  Do you think she'll be a burden to you?"
        Chouji and Ino traded a look as Sakura considered this.  Asuma
never had said what the conditions for passing the test were, had he?
Sakura looked at Ino and saw the unusually thoughtful look on her
rival's face.
        "It's your decision, Ino," Chouji said after a moment.
        Ino sighed, walking forward to stand in front of Sakura.  The
two studied each other for a moment, then Ino suddenly stuck out her
hand.  "I'm still going to crush you in the third exam, Forehead," she
said.
        Sakura accepted Ino's hand.  "Trust me, Ino-pig, the feeling is
mutual," she answered.
        Ino smiled.  "Until then, Sakura, I guess we're teammates."
        Sakura slowly smiled back.  "I guess so, Ino."  After a long
moment, the two firmly shook hands.

***********************************************************************

[Day Twenty]

        No matter how hard she tried, Sakura wasn't able to make herself
take the final steps to the door of what had been her house all of her
life.  She had walked this same path effortlessly countless times
before, but now she might as well have been trying to walk up a sheer
cliff without using chakra.  Anger warred with fear deep within her,
though she was able to keep even the slightest hint of these churning
emotions from her impassive face.
        Despite this, she still found herself thinking that it would be
easier for her to enter the house thinking Orochimaru was inside, rather
than her mother.  Orochimaru she feared more than she cared to admit
even to herself, but it was a simple fear.  Were she strong enough, she
would face him without hesitation.  Her mother was a different story.
Even had Sakura been granted all the power of the Hokages, she would
still fear to take these last few steps.  This fear had nothing to do
with strength or weakness.  Her mother was no ninja, but she could hurt
Sakura in ways no one else could even dream of.
        Sakura tried not to dwell on it, but could not stop her mind
from thinking of how alone she was right now.  Sasuke had... left.
Naruto was away and would not be back for a long time.  Even Kakashi was
on a mission.  It was scary to think that Ino was the closest thing to a
friend she had right now.  Ino - the only person in her academy class
she had hated more than Naruto!
        Sakura needed her mother.  She was the only family Sakura had
ever known.  Her mother had always been there for her, a comforting
presence that she had come to take for granted.  Even before she had met
Sasuke, she had wanted to excel as a ninja, to make her mother proud of
her.  Yet now that drive had somehow driven a wedge between them.
        The thought strengthened Sakura's anger.  How could her mother
not see how important being a ninja was to her?  How could she demand
that Sakura abandon what she had spent her whole life striving toward?
Some small part of Sakura could imagine her mother fearing that her
daughter would die like her husband, but she could not understand why
this had only become a problem now.  Her mother had to have known what
sending her to the ninja academy had meant.  She had still chosen to
send Sakura to follow in her father's footsteps.
        "Sakura-san! Good morning!"
        Sakura almost jumped at the voice that suddenly interrupted her
thoughts.  She slowly turned around, forcing a smile to her face.  "Good
morning, Lee-san," she said.  The other genin was jogging in place,
large metal bands weighing down his arms.  His leg weights were hidden
by orange fabric just like Sakura now wore, and Sakura repressed a
sudden shudder at the thought of how much Lee's weights had to weigh.
"What brings you here?"
        "Gai-sensei is on a mission, so I have to train on my own
today," Lee explained, still jogging in place.  "I decided to run down
every road in the village without stopping!"
        "I see," Sakura said slowly, very glad she had no intention of
becoming a taijutsu specialist.  Even without weights, she doubted she
could make it even a quarter of the way through that task.
        "Are you going to be taking the Chuunin Exam again, Sakura-san?"
Lee asked.  He grinned widely.  "This time I'm going to make it to the
final round!"
        It was amazing that Lee could talk so happily of the Chuunin
Exam.  Sakura occasionally had nightmares about the end of his match
with Gaara, and those were pleasant compared to the ones where she had
been paired with the insane Sand ninja in the preliminaries.  Sakura
couldn't keep a smile off her face at the other ninja's seemingly
inexhaustible supplies of cheer and enthusiasm.  "I will be," she
answered.  Even if it meant she never spoke civilly to her mother again.
        Lee's grin, impossibly, widened even further.  "Good luck!" he
said.  He waved once, then broke into a run.  Sakura shook her head as
he vanished.  If he was that fast with those weights, it was almost
unimaginable how quickly he would move without them.
        Sakura turned back to the door to her house, and without
stopping to let herself become lost in thought again, stepped forward
and knocked loudly.  Even as the sound of the knock faded, Sakura's
stomach began to twist itself into knots in fear, but it was too late to
take the knock back.  After what seemed an eternity but couldn't have
been more than a minute, the door opened.
        Haruno Amaya's face hardened as she saw her daughter.  "I told
you to leave and not come back, ninja," she said harshly.
        Sakura's face was smooth, but she barely kept her fists from
clenching.  It seemed as though any hopes she had held that her mother
had experienced a change of heart were in vain.  "Let me in, Mother,"
she said, her voice tight and controlled.  Showing anger at this stage
would be worse than useless.
        "Goodbye, Sakura-san," her mother said, shutting the door.
        Sakura easily grabbed the door and held it open.  Her mother
glared at her, but Sakura didn't release the door.  "Let me in, Mother,"
she repeated.  "We need to talk."
        "Why should I?" her mother asked.
        "Because I'm your daughter, and it isn't right for -"
        Her mother interrupted her with a snarl.  "I have no daughter!"
she said, almost yelling.  "Leave here and don't ever come back!"  Her
mother suddenly strained against Sakura's hold on the door.  Caught by
surprise, Sakura wasn't able to push back in time, and had to let go
before her fingers were caught.  The door slammed shut with a loud thud,
and an instant later there was the sound of it being locked.
        Staring at the closed door to what had always been her home,
Sakura trembled, almost collapsing.  Though she had known that this
might happen, somehow it seemed even worse than how she had ever
imagined this meeting going.  Her eyes watered as she whirled about and
slowly walked away, but Sakura held the tears in.
        She would not cry.

***********************************************************************

        Jiraiya, now awake but still bed-ridden, had quickly devoured
the food that had been left at him as he listened to Naruto tell the
story of how he had been brought here.  "Good work, Naruto," Jiraiya
said after a moment.  "You took an awful risk, but you didn't have much
choice."
        Naruto nodded, remembering his fears as he had set out to take
Jiraiya to this town.  If it had had been a Rock ninja base instead of a
civilian town, it would have been a disastrous choice.  Fortunately,
luck had been with him.
        Jiraiya grimaced.  "That must have been a much more powerful
poison than I had thought.  An ordinary poison wouldn't put me out like
that."  The two were able to talk freely, as the doctor was out making a
house call elsewhere in the town.  Jiraiya sighed.  "The Kamizuru Clan,
huh?"
        "Who're they?" Naruto asked.
        For a moment, Jiraiya didn't answer.  Then he said, "You know
the Aburame Clan, right?"
        Naruto nodded.  "Of course."  It wasn't like he could forget
Shino.  Naruto repressed a shudder.  He didn't mind bugs, really, but
they weren't exactly his favorite things in the world either.
        "The Kamizuru are a clan of bug users like them," Jiraiya said.
"The two clans have been rivals since before the Leaf Village was
founded."  Jiraiya sighed.  "Back during the last war with the Rock, the
Kamizuru were going to launch an attack on the Aburame right before the
truce was going to be signed.  If it had worked they might have wiped
out their rivals once and for all."  Jiraiya rubbed his chin.  "The
Fourth and I - though he wasn't the Fourth yet, of course - managed to
uncover the plot and warn the Aburame in time."  Jiraiya's eyes were
distant, and he paused, apparently lost in the past.
        "And then?" Naruto prompted.
        "The Aburame laid a trap, and it was the Kamizuru who were
nearly wiped out," Jiraiya said.  "The old Tsuchikage eventually
disbanded the clan for attacking without his approval and exiled the
survivors from the Rock."  Jiraiya sighed, laying back on the bed.
"Something must have changed for the Kamizuru to be allowed to rejoin."
        "What?" Naruto asked.
        "How should I know?" Jiraiya said, but after a moment he
answered anyway.  "Part of it would be that the Leaf are in no position
to object right now.  There's probably still something else, though."
Jiraiya sighed again.  "I just hope it isn't a sign that the Rock are
thinking of war."  Jiraiya rolled over in bed, facing away from Naruto.
"Now let me go back to sleep, boy."
        Before Jiraiya could accomplish this, the door opened and the
doctor returned.  Before anyone else could speak, he glared at Naruto.
"It seems you've still be lying to me, boy," he said as he shut the door
behind him.
        "What?" Naruto asked.  Jiraiya sat up in bed, suddenly seeming
far stronger than a moment ago.
        "There's a Rock ninja that just came to town asking after you
two."  The doctor grimaced.  "Says you two are Leaf spies."
        "We're," Naruto began, but he cut off as Jiraiya laid a warning
hand on his arm.
        "I'm sure that you can understand why my student said what he
did," Jiraiya said, his voice flat.
        "Oh, yes," the doctor said.  "I really half-expected something
like this, but..."  He trailed off, then started again.  "You must
understand that this places me in a very difficult position."
        "Of course," Jiraiya said.  After a moment's struggle, he rose.
"We can be gone in just a moment."
        "No!" the doctor protested.  "You aren't ready to travel."  The
doctor began to pace back and forth in front of the door, swearing under
his breath.  "Go down to the basement," he said.  "There are some empty
crates down there that are large enough to hide you two."
        "Thank you," Jiraiya said after a moment, turning toward the
stairs.  "Come on, boy."  Jiraiya suddenly stumbled, and Naruto caught
him.  "Damn it," Jiraiya said, but he let Naruto help him down the
stairway.  Once down in the basement, the two ninja quickly found the
crates the doctor had spoken of and hidden themselves.  "I wish I had
the focus to pull off a genjutsu," Jiraiya muttered as he carefully
closed the lid of the crate.
        What seemed like an eternity later, there was the sound of
footsteps on the stairway.  Naruto tensed, then forced himself to relax.
"You see, Kamizuru-sama?" came the doctor's nervous voice.  "No one down
here."
        "Is that so?" a woman said.  For a moment, Naruto thought he
heard a buzzing sound, but it quickly stopped before he could be certain
whether or not it was only his imagination.  "So it seems," the woman
said after a moment.  "Tell me again what you know."
        "Yes, of course," the doctor said.  "The boy came by with the
old man, who was in some sort of coma.  He said something about a bee
sting, but he didn't have any money to pay so I made him leave."
        The woman chuckled.  "You're a cruel man."
        "This business isn't cheap," the doctor answered.  "I gave him
some free advice on keeping the old man fed, but I couldn't afford to
treat him for free."  The doctor paused, then continued.  "He was
probably going to die anyway, no matter what I did."
        "Did the boy say anything about where he was headed next?"  the
woman asked.  Naruto didn't hear the doctor say anything, but he guessed
he shook his head.  "I see," the woman said.  "Thank you for your
cooperation."  The two headed back up the stairs.
        After what seemed like another eternity, the doctor came back
down.  "It's safe," he said, and Naruto and Jiraiya emerged from the
crates.
        "Thank you," Jiraiya said.  "Not many people would have helped
us."
        The doctor smiled thinly.  "I'm not many people."
        "Why did you hide us?" Naruto asked.
        The doctor sighed.  "Back when I worked in the Rock Village,
sometimes they brought me prisoners."  Jiraiya nodded, but the doctor
saw Naruto's look of incomprehension and continued.  "They would torture
them within an inch of their lives, then bring them to the hospital.  We
had to heal them as quickly as possible, so that the interrogation could
continue.  Sometimes we saw the same prisoner four or five times before
he broke."
        "That's awful," Naruto said after a moment.
        The doctor smiled grimly.  "So it is," he said.  He paused for a
long moment before continuing.  "Once I let a captured Sand ninja die.
They couldn't prove anything, or I wouldn't be here today, but I'm sure
they suspected.  I decided to leave soon afterwards."
        "A wise decision," Jiraiya said after a moment.
        "So you see," the doctor said, "there's no great love between
the Rock and me."  He smiled again.  "You are lucky beyond belief that
you found me, boy."
        Naruto just nodded.  Jiraiya gave the doctor a long look.  "We
shouldn't trouble you anymore.  We'll leave tonight."
        "No!" the doctor protested.  "It's too soon.  Stay one more day,
to make sure you don't suffer a relapse.  Please!"
        "All right," Jiraiya said slowly.  "One more day."

***********************************************************************

[Day Twenty-One]

        The next day, Jiraiya was indeed feeling much better.  By the
time Naruto awoke, he was already out of bed and sorting through the
pack Naruto had brought.  "I can't believe you left my scrolls behind,"
Jiraiya said as soon as he saw his student had awoken.  "Those are
important."
        Naruto snorted.  "You're too heavy, Ero-sennin," he answered.
"I couldn't carry both you and them."  The genin put on a martyred
expression.  "I even left the last of my ramen behind!"
        Jiraiya blinked.  "Is that so?" he asked slowly as he began to
repack the bag.  "I thought we were out."
        Naruto's expression became nervous.  "I hid some so you wouldn't
take them," he admitted.
        Jiraiya laughed.  "In your case, I'm afraid we'll have to add a
new ninja vice.  Drink, money, women, and ramen."  He shook his head
sadly.
        Naruto pouted, turning away from Jiraiya.  "Stupid Ero-sennin.
Ramen is a virtue, not a vice."  For a long moment, the two ninja were
silent, then they simultaneously burst out laughing.
        Jiraiya shook his head again, this time in amusement.  "Somehow
I don't think the academy textbook writers would go for either of those.
And the ramen sellers in the Leaf Village would probably put out a
bounty on my head."
        Naruto's laughing stopped instantly as he thoughtfully gazed
upward.  "I wonder how much ramen I could buy with that," he said
quietly.
        Jiraiya smiled wryly.  "You've got a long ways to go before you
could collect a bounty on me, boy," he said.
        "What's all this noise?" came the doctor's grumpy voice as he
descended the stairs.  He rubbed at his eyes.  "I see you two are lively
this morning."  He gestured vaguely at Jiraiya.  "Get over there and
I'll take a look at you."  He muttered something under his breath about
ninja and their ridiculous recovery times as Jiraiya complied.
        Several minutes later, the doctor pronounced Jiraiya fit.
"You'll still tire easily for a couple days," he said, "but if you don't
press yourself you'll do fine."  The doctor vanished downstairs and
emerged with a small bottle of pills.  "Take one of these if you start
feeling light-headed.  I doubt you'll need them, but just in case."
        "Thank you," Jiraiya said as he took the bottle.
        "Don't thank me," the doctor replied.  "It's all in my bill,
after all."
        Jiraiya nodded.  "What's the damage?"  The doctor rattled off an
incredibly high number, and Naruto paled.  Jiraiya just pulled out his
checkbook and began to write.  As he finished signing, there was a
thunderous knock on the doorway.
        "Jiraiya of the Hidden Leaf!" a familiar women's voice shouted.
"Come out with your student and we might let the doctor live!"
        Jiraiya froze, then added another zero to the end of the sum on
the check.  He handed it to the doctor, who stood frozen.  "Go down to
the basement," he said, "and don't come out until the noise stops."
        "But," the doctor protested, but he didn't seem able to come up
with any valid objection.
        "This is our fight, not yours," Jiraiya said.  "Naruto, get the
pack!"  The genin hastened to comply as the doctor slowly made his way
downstairs.
        "This is your last warning!" the woman outside shouted.
        "Come on," Jiraiya said to Naruto as he walked over to the door.
"Are you ready?"  Naruto nodded, and the two stepped outside.
        The first thing that they noticed was the dome of bees that
completely enclosed the doctor's office.  There were so many that they
almost blocked out the sun, casting the area into a strange twilight.
The second thing they noticed were the other three people who were
inside the dome.  The woman who had been speaking now stood several
paces back from the door, flanked by two men.  One was Kamizuru
Kurobachi.  The other was a blond man who wore small glasses.  All three
wore Rock forehead protectors.
        "So the fugitives emerge," the new man said, smirking.
        Jiraiya's face was hard.  "I suppose negotiation is not an
option," he said.
        The woman laughed cruelly.  "Of course not," she said, a thin
smile drawing across her face.  "After what you did to our clan, we will
settle for nothing but your death."
        "You are all Kamizuru, then?" Jiraiya asked quietly.
        The woman nodded.  "I am Kamizuru Suzumebachi.  You've already
met Kurobachi."  She gestured at the blond.  "This is Jirobachi."  Her
eyes fell on Naruto.  "Pray return the favor, O Great Toad Hermit, and
introduce to us your new student."
        Naruto snarled, reaching for a kunai.  "I'm Uzumaki Nar -"
        "Naruto!" Jiraiya snapped, cutting the genin off.  "Get back and
stay back; this fight is out of your league."
        "But," Naruto began to protest.
        "Guard the door," Jiraiya said.  Naruto's eyes widened and he
almost stumbled backward in his haste.  He hadn't considered that the
Rock ninja might go after the doctor.
        "Uzumaki, huh?" Suzumebachi said as her eyes followed Naruto.
"I guess Kurobachi's guess was wrong.  No matter."  Her hands formed a
single seal.  "I do not suppose you will surrender quietly?" she asked.
Jiraiya only snorted, and the Rock kunoichi smiled.  "Very well.
Thousand Bee Technique!"  A line of bees detached themselves from the
dome, flying directly at Jiraiya.  As they neared they spread out into a
wall, firing their stingers at their target.
        Jiraiya's hands blurred into a seal.  "Whirlwind Counter!"  The
winds he summoned grabbed hold of the the stingers, hurling them at his
opponents.  The Rock ninja darted out of the way, their hands already
racing through another set of seals.  Jiraiya followed suit, finishing
first as he brought one hand up to his mouth.  "Katon: Dragon Fire
Technique!"  A line of fire sprayed from his open mouth at the three
Kamizuru ninja.
        Suzumebachi and Kurobachi dodged in time, but Jirobachi was
caught in the flames.  His body seemed to melt away from the heat , but
as the fire died out instead of ashes there was a pile of charred bee
corpses.  Jiraiya surmised that it was some sort of replication
technique, but he had no time to consider the real Jirobachi's
whereabouts.
        Suzumebachi bit at her thumb, her hands blurring into another
set of seals.  Jiraiya quickly began to form seals of his own, but
before he could finish his technique Kurobachi struck.  "Thousand Bee
Technique!" Another line of bees flew out of the dome overhead and flew
at Jiraiya.
        The Sannin danced back, forced to abandon the technique he had
started.  "Whirlwind Counter!" he shouted, sending the captured stingers
at Kurobachi to no effect.
        Suzumebachi's hands plunged to the ground.  "Doton: Summoning -
Bee Hive Technique!"  Lines of black characters rapidly crawled across
the ground toward Jiraiya from where her hands rested.  As the Leaf
ninja jumped back again, an impossibly large hive - bigger than Jiraiya
himself - burst from the earth where he had been standing.  Almost
instantly, a huge cloud of bees flew out of the hive, swarming around
Jiraiya.
        "Ero-sennin!" Naruto shouted, panicked.  Only a few stings had
knocked Jiraiya out before, and now he was getting stung hundreds or
thousands of times.
        "Katon: Firewall Technique," came Jiraiya's calm voice from the
center of the swarm.  The bees surrounding him suddenly vanished in a
storm of flame.  The bee hive caught fire from the sheer heat of the
inferno, quickly vanishing in a puff of white smoke.  When the flames
vanished, Jiraiya's hair, which had grown impossibly long and hard to
wrap him in a protective cocoon, quickly shrunk back to its proper
length.
        "I'm a little disappointed," Jiraiya said.  "I thought you three
would have something better prepared for your grand attempt to avenge
your clan."
        The door to the doctor's office flung open, almost hitting
Naruto.  "How about this?" Jirobachi said as he emerged, dragging the
doctor after him.  He placed a kunai at the hostage's throat.
"Surrender now or I'll kill him," he said unnecessarily.
        Naruto drew a kunai of his own.  "You bastard," he growled.
        Jirobachi laughed, flicking his kunai up to draw a line of blood
across the doctor's cheek.  The doctor fainted, and Jirobachi laughed
again.  "Careful, boy," the Rock ninja said.  "Now drop the kunai before
I kill him."
        Naruto snarled, his whole body shaking in rage.  His eyes
suddenly narrowed, then widened again as they changed color. His hands
twitched, his fingernails beginning to lengthen slightly.  The marks on
his face darkened as he stared up at Jirobachi.  "I'll kill you first,"
he growled out.
        Jirobachi's kunai almost dropped from his nerveless fingers as
he started back, almost frozen by the sudden wave of power and murderous
intent sweeping out from Naruto.  "Wha -" he managed to get out before
Naruto pounced.
        In an instant, Jiraiya was there, forcing Naruto away at the
same time as he freed the doctor and casually tossed Jirobachi back at
the other two Rock ninja.  "He's not worth it," he told Naruto as he
carefully set the doctor down.  With visible effort, Naruto restrained
himself, and the sudden evil presence vanished.
        "What was that?" Suzumebachi asked as she helped Jirobachi to
his feet.
        "I'm through playing with you," Jiraiya said harshly, his hands
forming seals.
        Suzumebachi snarled.  "It won't do you any good," she said as
she formed seals of her own.  The other two Rock ninja followed suit,
Jirobachi slightly more slowly.
        Jiraiya finished well before his opponents.  "Mass Shadow
Replication Technique!"  There was a sea of white smoke, and when it
faded away all three Rock ninja froze at the sight that awaited him.  A
horde of Jiraiya surrounded them, covering the entire roadway in front
of the doctor's office.  More Jiraiyas crowded the roof of the office,
staring down at the suddenly insignificant seeming Kamizuru.
        The replications smirked in unison, each holding out a hand.
"Rasengan!" a hundred voices shouted, and chakra began to gather in a
hundred hands.
        Suzumebachi's eyes widened, and her hands quickly moved into
another set of seals.  Even as the replications began to leap at the
three ninja, they sank into the earth, vanishing without a trace.  A
moment later, the dome of bees was briefly replaced by a dome of pale
smoke.  Then it disappeared entirely, revealing the spectators that had
been watching from something approximating a safe distance.
        All but one Jiraiya vanished in their own puffs of smoke.  The
remaining Jiraiya sighed, letting the Rasengan in his hand die away as
he walked over to where Naruto was trying to wake up the doctor.  He
glanced back at the spectators, who were quickly making themselves
scarce.  "This is going to cause a real big mess, isn't it?" he muttered
to himself.

***********************************************************************

        "All right," Tsunade said as she gazed at the people who were
currently crowding her office.  "I'm sure you all know why we're all
here this morning."  In the back of the room stood a small horde of
elite chuunin wearing their gray uniforms.  Their muttering cut off
instantly as Tsunade spoke.
        The door to the office opened suddenly, admitting a single
special jounin.  "Sorry I'm late," Mitarashi Anko said as she pushed her
way through the chuunin to stand between Morino Ibiki and Shiranui
Genma, the other two examiners.
        Asuma sighed, glancing sideways at Kurenai.  The other jounin
just smirked back at him, making a slight shrug.  Apparently she had no
idea why her friend was late.  Asuma decided he probably didn't want to
know, and turned his attention back to the Hokage.
        "Shizune," Tsunade said, turning to the woman who stood
unobtrusively behind her, "am I allowed to dismiss examiners for
tardiness?"
        "I don't think so, Hokage-sama," Shizune said, barely stifling a
chuckle.  Anko let out a theatrical sigh of relief.
        "Drat," Tsunade muttered.  "All right then, let's get down to
business.  Jounin with new genin teams, step forward."  The Hokage
glanced at the papers on her desk.  "That's Suzume-san, Uzuki-san, and
Funeno-san, in case any of you three have somehow forgotten."  The three
jounin walked up to stand in a line in front of Tsunade's desk.  "I'm
supposed to tell you a bunch of boring junk you already know," Tsunade
said, "but I won't waste anyone's time.  You know your teams meet the
minimum requirements to take the exam.  Are you three nominating anyone
for this exam?  Suzume-san, you first."
        The named jounin, a mousy woman who wore glasses, stepped
forward.  Asuma studied her carefully.  He didn't know her very well -
she was an ex-academy instructor who'd been promoted to full jounin in
the last round of exams, and that was about the limit of his knowledge
of her.  "From Team One that I lead," she began, "Mitokado Fuki, Uzuki
Ami, Inuzuka Shinta.  I recommend those three for the Chuunin Selection
Exam under my name, Suzume Namida."  The chuunin in the back began to
mutter excitedly.
        Suzume stepped back and the next jounin stepped forward.
Asuma's eyes narrowed.  This one, he knew more of.  She had left ANBU to
lead a team shortly after the last Chuunin Exam.  Hadn't she served
under Kakashi for a while?  "From Team Three that I lead: Namiashi
Honzo, Toriichi Kasumi, Hijiri Eiji," the purple-haired woman stated.
"I recommend those three for the Chuunin Selection Exam under my name,
Uzuki Yuugao."
        Now it was the third jounin's turn, and Asuma smiled.  Now
Daikoku he knew well.  He was fun to go out with and the only one of the
three who had lead a team before.  He was another ex-academy instructor,
and had been the last jounin to recommend a rookie team for the Chuunin
Exam before the last exams.  He could be surprisingly cautious though,
and Asuma wasn't certain whether he'd recommend his team this time.
"From Team Four that I lead: Utatane Izumo, Yamashiro Naizen, Tatami
Mai.  I recommend those three for the Chuunin Selection Exam under my
name, Funeno Daikoku."  The muttering among the chuunin was now even
louder.  Daikoku rubbed his short beard as he stepped back, half-turning
and flashing a grin at Asuma.  "You didn't think we'd let you two and
Hatake show us up, did you?"
        Asuma and Kurenai just traded an amused look.  It was
inevitable, Asuma supposed.  After the incredible success of the "Rookie
Nine" every jounin with a fresh team was going to try and match that
accomplishment for a while.  At least this time the new genin's academy
teacher wasn't going to protest - he was probably equally eager to match
Iruka.
        Tsunade muttered something under her breath, then spoke up.
"All right, next step, the last class of genin.  Yuuhi-san, Sarutobi-
san, I assume you wouldn't waste your time by being here if you didn't
have have teams to nominate.  Go ahead."
        Kurenai stepped forward first.  "From Team Eight that I lead:
Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino.  I renominate those three
for the Chuunin Selection Exam under my name, Yuuhi Kurenai."  She
stepped back, allowing Asuma to take her place.
        "From Team Ten that I lead: Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji."
Asuma paused.  He had needed to look up the formal words for nominating
genin that weren't under his command.  "From Team Seven that Hatake
Kakashi leads, with his permission: Haruno Sakura."  Tsunade smiled at
him as though she were very pleased, a fact that Asuma filed away for
future consideration.  "I renominate those three for the Chuunin
Selection Exam under my name, Sarutobi Asuma," he finished, stepping
back.
        Before Tsunade could speak, another jounin stepped forward,
grinning widely.  Asuma was barely able to keep from burying his face in
his hands.  "What a glorious day this is in the springtime of all our
students' youths!" Gai proclaimed.
        "You're supposed to wait for me to call on you, Maito-san,"
Tsunade said sourly.
        "I'm sorry, Hokage-sama," Gai apologized, "but I am overcome by
pride for all this village's genin."
        "Very nice," Tsunade said after a moment.  "Hurry up and
nominate your team; I have other things to discuss."
        "Yes, Hokage-sama," Gai said, taking a deep breath.  "From Team
Sixteen that I lead: Rock Lee, Hyuuga Neji, Tenten.  I renominate those
three for the Chuunin Selection Exam under my name, Maito Gai."
        "All right," Tsunade said, making several notes on a piece of
paper as Gai stepped back.  "With the teams that no longer need jounin
recommendation that have indicated they will participate in the exam,
the Hidden Village of the Leaf will have twenty-one teams participating
in the Chuunin Exam."  She set the paper aside, pulling out another
sheet.  "From the Hidden Village of Sand, five teams.  From the Hidden
Village of Rain, two teams.  From the Hidden Village of Waterfall, three
teams.  From the Hidden Village of Grass, seven teams."
        Asuma nodded to himself.  Except for the Grass, the numbers were
down from six months ago, but that was to be expected.  The Sand would
not want to send too many teams for fear of the action being
misinterpreted as preparation for another betrayal.  The other villages
were still well within their normal range except for the Rain, but
perhaps the Rain had simply had a bad six months.
        Tsunade sighed, setting the piece of paper aside.  "From the
Hidden Village of the Mist, one team."  Almost instantly, the room
descended into pandemonium.
        Kurenai laid a hand on Asuma's shoulder.  "That's not normal,"
she said quietly.
        Asuma nodded.  "Definitely not."
        "Wait just a minute," came Anko's voice, cutting above the
crowd.  "After what just -"
        "That's precisely why, Mitarashi-san," Tsunade interrupted.  "I
will speak with you later about this."  Asuma filed that little exchange
away for future consideration as well, while Tsunade continued.  "In
light of recent hostile encounters between the Leaf and the Mist, the
Mizukage has asked to be allowed to send a team to our Chuunin Exam as a
sign of good faith.  There is precedent for such a request, and I have
consulted with the village council and we have decided to agree.
        "I do not need to tell you that this team will be searching for
any weaknesses it can uncover.  I do not believe it will find any,"
Tsunade continued.  "I believe that they will report back to the
Mizukage that the Leaf, contrary to all rumors, are still strong."
Tsunade stood.  "The Hidden Village of the Leaf's Chuunin Selection Exam
will commence two weeks from today.  You know what to do.    That is
all."

***********************************************************************

Author's Random Ramblings

1)  And that's another chapter!  As always, any and all C&C is most
welcome.  This chapter follows the trend of being longer than the
previous and breaking my personal record for longest chapter yet again.

2) Random factoid time:  Of the three new jounin and their genin teams
introduced in the last scene, all the jounin and four of the genin have
actually appeared in the anime.  All of the genin are at least related
to someone who has appeared in the anime.  If you're bored and have
nothing better to do, you can sit down with a good character listing (I
recommend Leafninja's) and figure it out.

3) Given that it was a common complaint on the last chapter, I tried to
give Naruto a bit more of a chance to shine and show that he's not quite
as dumb as he sometimes looks.  I hope I succeeded.

Draft Started: November 29, 2005
Draft Finished: December 18, 2005
Draft Released: December 19, 2005
Final Released:

-- 
           Aaron Nowack
"Never let reality get in the way of a good hypothesis."
http://www.mimiru.net/

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