Chapter 25: Chunin Exams Arc - Second: Chapter 24 1/2

Title: Dreaming of Sunshine

Summary: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert.

Author's note: Everyone sounds like they really want to know what Shikamaru said to Sasuke. XD I actually deliberately left it out; it's much more behind-the-scenes scary that way. Which, frankly, I think suits Shikamaru more. You know he said something, but the details are fuzzy. Sasuke knows, and it freaks him out. What does it take to freak out Sasuke, huh?

Also, 200 reviews! W00t!

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Chapter 24

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Letting go doesn't mean giving up, but rather accepting that there are things that cannot be. - Anon

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"Well, well, well, look who's here," Kiba greeted as Iruka-sensei let us loose in the tower with the admonishment that the top three levels were out of bounds. "All nine rookies made it through. That has to be a record. Man, you guys look beat." His gaze lingered over me.

"We ran into some trouble," I said lightly.

"So Team 8 is already here," Sasuke commented.

"We were the second team here," Kiba boasted.

This kind of set up was pretty much the perfect mission for Team 8, track and retrieve. The real eyebrow raiser was that someone had beaten them here.

"Yeah?" Shika asked lazily. "When'd you guys get in?"

"Late last night. It's just been us and that creepy Sand team all day." He looked nervous. "Stay away from them. That guy is bad news. You don't want to know what we saw him do in the forest."

"Gaara?" Naruto asked, frowning. "Yeah. We ran into him before the Exams even started." He shivered.

"So what's the deal with this place?" Ino cut in. "Please tell me there's a shower."

"And food!" Chouji chimed in.

Kiba snorted. "Yeah, yeah. What am I, a tour guide? Come on, I'll show you where we're staying." He turned and started walking, expecting us to follow. We didn't really have any better options.

"I get the feeling this place doesn't get used a lot," he continued. "It's pretty empty, y'know? Most of it is barracks and storage rooms and things like that. I'm pretty sure the upper levels are where the Chunin are working since we're not allowed up there. We haven't seen them since we got in either, except the guy that brings the food down."

He knocked on one of the doors before opening it. "Hey guys. You'll never guess what I found."

'Barracks' was the right description for the place. Bunk room, as well. There were bunk beds covering three of the walls, at least sixteen beds total, with a second door to the side that I suspected led to the bathroom. Three of the lower bunks - more easily defendable - looked in use so I suspected that was where Team 8 was sleeping.

"N-Naruto!" Hinata said, surprised. "A-and everyone else, of course!" She bowed politely.

"Hey Hinata. Shino." I waved. "You guys don't mind if we crash in your room, do you?"

Shino adjusted his glasses. "Is that wise? We are still rival competitors for this Examination."

"Second Exam is over," Shika pointed out, still looking like he didn't care one way or the other. "For us, anyway. And the Third Exam doesn't start till later anyway."

"Y-yes!" Hinata shrunk back as her voice came out slightly too loud. "I mean, i-if you want to stay here… there's plenty of space, isn't there? We don't mind."

"Thanks, Hinata!" Naruto exclaimed, hands tucking behind his head. "You're alright, you know that?"

Her cheeks went pink so fast.

Ino gave her a knowing look. "Sounds good to me. It'll give us a chance to catch up. Everyone's been so busy since graduation!"

"Yeah, tell me about it," Kiba grumbled good naturedly. "If it isn't my mum, it's Kurenai-sensei and if it isn't her it's Hana. All 'do some training, Kiba', 'you're a real ninja now, Kiba, you can't just slack off anymore'." He rolled his eyes. "Hopefully this'll show them, right?"

Shikamaru flopped down on one of the bunks. "It's just so troublesome," he complained.

I snickered. "Just think," I teased. "If you don't make Chunin this time… you'll have to do it all over again."

Ino snickered too. "Hey! You'll probably end up like that Kabuto guy. How many was it? Eight times?"

"Don't even joke about that," Shika muttered. "I'll have nightmares about it."

"Same old Shikamaru," Naruto said. "You're as lazy as ever."

Sasuke, on the other hand, said nothing. He was still giving my brother a wary look.

We settled in, joking and laughing, sharing anecdotes about what had happened since graduation. Team 8 hadn't heard about our C turned A-rank, so Naruto got to retell the story, complete with arm gestures, much to Hinata's delight.

It was loud and companionable and nice.

"Man, I'm getting hungry," Chouji said. "You said they had food here, right?"

Kiba rolled his eyes. "Yeah. There's a kitchen upstairs that the Chunin keep stocked with food. Bring some down for us, would you? Since we're playing gracious hosts and all."

Chouji was practically out the door already.

Ino scampered after him. "Oh no you don't. I know you, Chouji, you'll just get fattening food! I'm coming too!"

"Yes! Food! No more ration bars!" Naruto exclaimed. "Oooh, maybe they have ramen!"

"I hope that's not all he brings back," I said to Sasuke.

He winced. "Wait up, idiot!" he barked. Sasuke was still moving stiffly, fist clenching every now and then as spasms of pain radiated from the curse mark. I watched him go in worry.

I waited for my team to be out of earshot before I turned and pinned Shikamaru with a serious look.

"Shikamaru," I asked lightly. "What exactly did you say to Sasuke?"

He rolled his head to look at me out of the corner of his eyes and sighed. "It'd be troublesome… but you are my little sister. So… there are some things that aren't allowed to happen."

I studied him for a while. It took a lot to rouse Shikamaru to action… but you never wanted to be his enemy when it did.

"You threatened him, didn't you?"

He shrugged and wouldn't answer any more questions.

"Shikamaru? He's about as threatening as Hinata!" Kiba scoffed.

"Kiba," Hinata protested quietly, tapping her fingers together. "I-I'm sure Shikamaru…" she trailed off indecisively.

"Haven't you heard the saying?" I grinned. "The three things any Konoha nin fears: An angry Aburame, a focused Inuzuka… and a motivated Nara."

Kiba barked a laugh. "Yeah, I've heard that. But you're a Nara and you seem plenty motivated to me."

…muffled thumps, two heavy, two light as the bodies and heads fell separately to the ground…

If my grin was a tad sharper, wilder, I couldn't help it. "Best be scared, then, ne?"

"As if," Kiba dismissed, but Shino was watching me closely. Shino, I knew, was very observant. What he was observing was up for debate. "Why would he be threatening Sasuke anyway? I mean, I know the guys a bit of a jerk but it's not like that ever bothered you before."

Shikamaru looked up. "He broke her ribs," he said, clearly and carefully.

Akamaru yipped. Kiba looked horrified. Inuzuka were loyal. Attacking a team mate was seriously against their beliefs.

I winced. "I'm pretty sure they were already broken before that," I said weakly. Yeah, it didn't sound like much of a defence to me either.

There was a pause, and I was damn sure the Team 8 was reassessing my injuries.

I sighed. "Okay. Here's what happened." I wasn't sure whether telling them was the right thing to do, but on the other hand, there wasn't really a good reason to not tell them. Particularly if it would help warn them about what was to come. I told them about the Orochimaru fight, but skimmed very quickly over the Sound team except for mentioning that he's sent them. Then I told them about the curse mark though I didn't use those words.

"You're serious?" Kiba asked, breaking the silence when I'd finished. "You're not just …pulling our legs or something?"

I shook my head. "Completely serious. I wouldn't joke about something like this."

Shino adjusted his glasses again, the only sign of discomfort he allowed himself. "That is… disturbing news. One would think that the ANBU would move to prevent such a thing happening, or cease the Chunin Exams while he was here."

"How can they?" I replied. "Doing something like that would just make Konoha seem weak to the other villages that are here… if we can't even defend ourselves from missing nin…" I trailed off leaving the thought open. "I don't exactly agree with it, especially since he seems to be targeting my team mate, but stopping the Chunin Exams would cause more problems than it would solve."

Besides, we're only Genin. They haven't invested that much into us.

"Damn," Kiba whistled. "I know we're enemies for this Exam and all… but if he pops up again just say the word and we have your back."

"I - Thanks, Kiba," I said, caught off guard. Hinata nodded, as firm as I've ever seen her.

"Well, we can't let you hog all the good fights," he said. "Me and Akamaru will show you how it's done, right boy?"

Akamaru barked.

"Tada!" Naruto hollered, door banging open. "We come bearing food!"

A lot of it, by the looks of things. Of course, with nine people including Naruto, Kiba and Chouji we needed a lot of food.

"What's with the atmosphere?" Sasuke asked, picking up on the heavy silence in the room. His dark eyes glanced over us all.

"I just told them about Orochimaru," I said as we set the food up to have a picnic in the middle of the floor.

"Is it true, Naruto?" Hinata asked timidly. "Did you really get attacked by him?"

"Ah, well, I wasn't there for most of it," he admitted. "But that's who they say he was." He waved his chopsticks vaguely in our direction. "But I ain't scared of no weird snake guy, that's for sure! Next time he shows his ugly face, I'll kick his ass!"

She pinked again and looked down. I could practically hear her thinking 'he's so brave'. Hinata really was a cute kid.

"Ne, Hinata," I asked carefully. "Do you think you could look at Sasuke's chakra for me later? I don't really know what Orochimaru did to poison him… but…"

She twisted her fingers in the hem of her jacket. "O-of course, but I don't know how much help I could be," she agreed quietly. "May-maybe Shino could help too?"

The Aburame did work closely with chakra, though most people didn't expect it, since they fed their own to their kikai instead of using it. But the mere fact that kikai ate chakra forced them to know more about it than the average ninja, particularly how things could affect chakra, and how that could affect their bugs.

"If you don't mind, Shino," I agreed.

Shino didn't have any objections, and after dinner had been cleared away we gathered around Sasuke to look at the curse mark.

"This is where he was bitten," I said, tracing my finger over the two puncture wounds in the curve of his neck. "And this mark must have formed shortly afterwards. I think it might be some sort of seal."

Hinata folded her hands into a seal and activated her Byakugan. She stared intently at his neck for a moment before speaking. "I… I can see it," she said softly. "There's a large mass underneath the mark itself and it's spreading further. Like… vines, or tendrils…" She trembled slightly. "The chakra is very … dark. Almost corrupted."

I blew out a sigh. "Okay. Can you tell how far it's gone?"

"Umm… It's definitely in the primary superficial subclavian chakra coil… maybe even the secondary subclavian coil. T-there are bits branching up the cervical coils… and towards the shoulder…"

So it was spreading pretty far, even without using it.

I bit my lip. "Maybe I can try and push it back, with my own chakra? Then we can see if we can block it off, stop it from spreading…"

Sasuke shifted. "Why do I get the feeling I'm about to be used as an experiment?" he asked.

"Hey, don't you trust us?" I asked weakly. "It's your choice, but… I really don't like this stuff… it can't be good for you."

"I know," he admitted quietly. "I don't like it either."

I straightened my shoulders and gathered my chakra, sliding it into his coils like I was doing medical jutsu.

Then jerked back and clamped a hand over my mouth and nose. "Grk!" I swallowed, convulsively, as my stomach tried to escape, an instinctive reaction to something so repulsive.

"Shikako?" Shikamaru asked warily, propping himself up on his shoulder from where he was lying on his bunk.

I waved my hand at him. "'m okay," I mumbled, breathing in deeply. "It just feels… really, really nasty."

"A rather extreme reaction," Shino noted.

"Hey, I'm a sensitive soul," I said, gathering myself to try again. This time, I resisted the instinctive urge to flinch away, battling through the nausea. It was easy, though, to tell which chakra was Sasuke's and which wasn't.

"It's moving back," Hinata confirmed quietly. Her hand reached out to trace a path against Sasuke's chest. "There's a branch of it down this way, towards the heart…"

The heart was pretty important in chakra production, containing the eighth chakra gate. Sasori had, after all, been able to function as a puppet with only his heart remaining.

"Ah, sorry! Sasuke-san!" Hinata jerked her hand back, flushing red and using an overly formal honorific to apologise.

"Don't worry about it," Sasuke said, uncomfortably.

I mostly ignored them as I focused on shunting the corrupted chakra back to one spot. It didn't want to be returned, and it kept trying to escape my grasp. It's purpose was to try and spread through the body, and that was what it kept trying to do. It wasn't alive exactly, but all chakra has a mental component to it.

"Shino?" I asked absently. "Do you think your kikai could target one kind of chakra and not another?"

Shino considered. I could hear his hive buzzing. "If the difference is as great as you implied, then yes, I suspect so," he said at length. "Do you wish for me to attempt to remove the … poisoned chakra?"

"I don't know," I confessed, frowning as I tried to contain it. "In a normal wound you would definitely attempt to draw out the poison before doing anything, so removing the excess chakra might make it weaker… but it might also stimulate it to produce more… I don't know enough to say."

"If there's a chance," Sasuke said. "You should try it."

Shino nodded. "A few at first, then. Hinata, if you will watch to see how it responds…"

"O-of course." She nodded.

A few kikai buzzed around the curse seal on Sasuke's neck. He flinched a little, but didn't react. Slowly, I felt the corrupted chakra drain, and I hastily tightened the net of my chakra holding it back.

"It seems to be weakening," I said. Hinata nodded in agreement. "It also seems that Sasuke's chakra is pushing it back a bit, too… it's just that after fighting so much…"

"My own chakra is depleted," he finished. "So if I keep using chakra… it will grow stronger." He didn't look happy with the thought. Well, if it was a permanent state, that was akin to being crippled or worse.

"Once the Exam is over we can get the medics to look at it or something," I said. "They'll probably know what to do better than we do…"

"Sorry," Hinata said timidly. "I wish I could do more…"

"It's… not your fault," Sasuke said. "I shouldn't have let myself get bitten in the first place."

I winced. There wasn't really much Sasuke could have done to stop that either.

"Ah, Hinata? Do you think it would be possible to put Jyuuken blocks in? The second I let go my chakra is just going to disperse."

She considered the question seriously. "Yes…. I can put chakra blocks in here and here… the chakra going to your arm will be weaker, but not completely stopped."

The chakra system was highly complex, with a lot of redundancies and double layers. There were about three or four different branches that lead into the arm, so blocking one wasn't going to immediately shut it down.

"Do it," Sasuke ordered firmly.

Hinata fingers stabbed into his shoulder sharply. I memorised the solidity of her chakra as it blocked off the pathways. The only other times I'd felt Jyuuken strikes, there had been too much pain associated with it to care about how it was done.

Sasuke hissed.

I copied the feel of her chakra as much I could, disengaging and drawing back. Most of it dissolved almost immediately. The Hyuuga probably underwent a lot of training to form their chakra like that in order to create plugs that wouldn't dissolve when contact was lost. Of course, even then they would be broken down naturally by the body in a matter of days.

I sighed. "That wont last forever," I said, flopping backwards. "How do you feel?"

Sasuke frowned and rotated his shoulder around. "Weird. Like there's something heavy attached to my neck." He paused. "Cleaner. I didn't realise… until it was gone…"

"It is unusual," Shino offered. "I have never heard of anything like this before." He was really disquieted by all of this. I guess they all were. It was hard to consider that while I had been terrified of it happening, they had all been blindsided by it. While I was just feeling relief that it was over, they were all still trying to come to terms with it happening at all.

"You guys are really kind of amazing," Naruto said. He'd been watching us all crowd around Sasuke with an odd look in his eyes. Naruto hadn't even seen Sasuke under the influence of the mark. Like Team 8, he only had second hand stories to go on.

"Thanks, Naruto," I said lethargically. Hinata practically glowed at the compliment. Even Shino looked pleased, if you looked closely enough. "How are you feeling? I think we should leave yours until we can get someone to look at it. Unless it gets worse," I amended.

He nodded vigorously. "No, I'm fine! Believe it!" He grinned a little too widely. Considering Orochimaru had hit him right over the Kyuubi seal, he probably didn't want anyone looking too closely.

Which coincidentally, was why I wasn't demanding to investigate it.

"Man, what a day," Shikamaru drawled.

I couldn't bring myself to disagree.

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The end of the Exam took it's time in arriving. At first we were glad for the chance to rest after the hectic rush of the Forest, but boredom started to creep in. There wasn't much to do around the tower, and we tried to stay out of the way of the Sand team as much as possible.

Team Gai arrived late on the third day, but chose to bunk in one of the many other empty rooms. I was quietly glad about it, because every time he saw me Lee got twitchy and Neji was giving me considering looks that made me vaguely uncomfortable.

Team Kabuto squeaked in just before the test ended and there was a flash of surprise and anger across his face when he caught sight of us already at the tower.

Were you looking for us? I wondered silently.

They called us to assemble on the afternoon of the fifth day. The room we assembled in was very large, with a small stage and a statue to one side of two hands in a seal, and two balconies running along the walls. The Hokage stood front and centre while the Exam proctors were arrayed beside him and our sensei aligned behind him.

Kakashi-sensei was there, with Gai and Kurenai and Asuma. Baki, the Sand Jounin, was there. And another. The Jounin was unfamiliar to me, a tall man with light brown hair, blue spandex drawn up around the sides of his face and square glasses. But his chakra… oh, his chakra…

Seems like someone wanted a front row seat…

Just having him there made me break out into a cold sweat. Not giving away that I knew… Not letting on … it took all my control.

"First of all," Anko said boldly. "Congratulations on finishing the Second Exam. Now pay attention. Hokage-sama is going to explain the Third Exam to you. You better listen carefully, maggots." She added the last bit as almost an afterthought, like she couldn't bear to let us go without insulting us one more time.

"First, before I tell you what the Third Exam entails, I want to explain about the test itself. Why do you suppose our country holds these exams in conjunction with our allies?" The Hokage asked rhetorically, puffing on his pipe.

Because our enemies wouldn't show up? My snarky side wanted to interject. I squashed it. Firmly.

"To raise the ability levels of the shinobi and increase friendship between allied nations to be sure, but it's important that you understand it's true meaning. The exams are, so to speak, a representation of the battle between allied nations. If we look at our history, all the countries that we're currently allied with were once neighbouring nations that continuously fought with each other for power. In order to avoid destroying each others military strength meaninglessly those nations picked champions to do battle on behalf of their countries at a mutually selected location. That was how the Chunin Selection Examinations originally began. There is no doubt that part of these Exams is to select shinobi worthy of becoming Chunin, that's just not the whole story. These Exams also allow for a place where shinobi can carry the pride of their nation on their and fight against other ninja for their very lives."

He made it sound so…elegant. I resisted the urge to curl my lip in disgust. Like we were thinking about national pride when we were trying not to die.

Line up all your little soldiers, just to knock them down…

"Many leaders and people of prominence are invited from various countries to attend this exam as guests and also possibly to seek shinobi to work for them. This exam could determine the course of your ninja work from here on out. And more importantly, those rulers will watch your battles and take note of the skills that each ninja and each nation is developing. If there is a gap in power between countries, the strong nations are inundated with job requests for their ninja and conversely, requests to those deemed weak decline. Therefore, the stronger our nation is, the better our position when negotiating with neighbouring countries. So it's important to show how much military strength our village has."

That at least, I understood. We were advertising. We were promoting our nation as better than our competitors. It was a cruel heartless way of doing it, and I wondered if the benefit was worth the loss of life that resulted from it. I knew at least one Konoha team had died in the forest, probably more.

"This Exam is a chance for each nation to display the strength of its shinobi and thus the strength of the nation itself and it's because its an Exam where your life is on the line that it has meaning. And it's for this very reason and for the strength of the nation that your forerunners fought in this Exam. It's truly a dream worth striving for."

Ah, the 'it's traditional' excuse. It was better than outright war, yes, but 'better' didn't mean 'the best option'. And I didn't consider that a 'dream worth striving for'.

"Why did you say it was about 'international friendship' before, then?" Tenten demanded.

"This is a custom where balance is preserved by fighting and dying," the Hokage replied. "In the world of the shinobi, that is friendship."

Sometimes it was easy to forget that the Third Hokage was a war leader. This wasn't one of them. For all the complaints about Konoha being soft and the Third Hokage being peace-loving, this was still a brutal, militaristic, war torn place.

"The Third Exam is a fight for life, with the pride of your village and your own dreams at stake."

"The test is fine. Just tell me what the details of the Exam are, already. I can handle anything you throw at me," Gaara said, voice barely louder than a whisper. He was clearly getting impatient with all the speeches. I was and I had a fairly high tolerance for bullshit.

A ninja landed, kneeling, in front of the Hokage with a burst of Body Flicker speed. "Hokage-sama, before you do please allow me, Hayate Gekko, proctor of the Third Exam to speak first."

"So be it," the Hokage granted.

"It's nice to meet you all." Hayate coughed. "There's something I would like all of you to do before the Third Exam."

He looked tired, with dark bags etched deeply beneath his eyes.I wondered if his cough was a temporary condition or a pre-existing one. It was short and light, not the deep, phlegmmy cough of pneumonia or bronchitis. I couldn't see anyone being on active duty if they had that kind of illness, anyway.

"We have to have a preliminary exam before we can move on to the real one. This is the first time in five years that there have been enough candidates finishing the Second Exam to require one." He coughed again. That was going to get annoying.

"Preliminaries?" Shikamaru asked, sounding annoyed. "Just what do you mean by that?"

"The First and Second Exams might have been too easy," the proctor explained. "The fact is, we never expected so many of you to still be here. According to the rules of the Chunin Exams, a preliminary exam can be held at any stage in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining. It's just that, as Hokage-sama said, a lot of important guests will be watching; we can't afford to waste their time. They've come to see only the best. So if there are any of you that feel you are not in top physical condition, now's your chance to bow out. The preliminaries will be determined by one-on-one combat and they will be starting immediately."

Sasuke twitched. I could feel the sudden pulse of chakra radiating from his curse mark, trying to break down the blocks Hinata and I had installed. His hand clenched shut against the pain.

Against my will, my eyes darted towards the row of Jounin.

Orochimaru.

I reached forward, wrapping my fingers around Sasuke's wrist and channelling chakra up his arm, helping him fight the curse seal back down. Screw conserving energy for the Exam. This was more important. There would be no luck in convincing Sasuke to quit, so all I could do was help him on forwards.

"Okay, you got me. I'm out," Kabuto said, raising his hand, sheepishly. I didn't buy it for a second.

"Kabuto?" Naruto exclaimed. "What are you doing? You can't quit now!"

"I'm sorry, but my body is just too beat up," Kabuto said apologetically. "I just can't hack it."

Yeah, I didn't buy that either.

The proctor waited to see if anyone else was going to quit, then shrugged.

"Alright then. We will now begin the preliminary round. There are 17 of you remaining, so we will need eight matches and one of you will gain a pass. The surviving candidates from these matches will move on to the Third Exam. As for the rules, there are none. You will fight until one of you dies or concedes defeat or is rendered physically incapable of continuing. Naturally, those who are losing are encouraged to concede defeat to avoid a fatal outcome. Furthermore, as proctor, I'm given a certain amount of leeway in judging the matches. I might occasionally intervene if a match seems hopeless to save as many lives as possible."

Everyone was starting to look eager now that the Exam had been explained. Whether they liked it or not, we were about to fight, so everyone was slowly switching over into fight mode.

"The names of each pair of opponents are chosen completely at random," Hayate continued his spiel. "Before each match, these names will appear on the display behind me. In a moment, the names of the first two opponents will appear."

I didn't buy the 'random matchups' explanation. If I was in charge, I'd want only the strongest competitors to get through. That would mean making a list of presumed strength and pairing people off strongest to weakest. That way, the strongest half would win and the weakest half would be removed from the Exam.

It wasn't exactly fair, but what was?

The strongest - apparent - Genin in the room would be Gaara, based on basic information. He was the son of the 4th Kazekage and holder of the Ichibi. And, crucially, able to use it's power.

The weakest, again at first glance, would be Lee. A non-clan shinobi. Malformed chakra coils and unable to use ninjutsu or genjutsu? On paper he made the weakest shinobi in the group.

That he wasn't was a tribute to his hard work.

And since that was one of the matchups that I remembered clearly…

The board flashed and blinked before settling onto two names.

Sasuke Uchiha vs. Yoroi Akado

"They didn't waste any time," Sasuke muttered.

I drew in a deep breath and leaned closer. "Be careful. Stick to Taijutsu and weaponry. And, watch out… his chakra feels… hungry." I gave him a troubled look.

"I got it," he assured me, jaw clenching. "This is my fight now."

"Everyone other than the two opposing candidates will now clear the area and move to the upper level," the proctor ordered.

I pulsed my chakra one last time, helping Sasuke fight off the curse mark, before disengaging. Almost immediately, he clenched his fist shut in pain. He nodded at me, and I stepped away, heading for the stairs.

There was no more that I could do.

Kakashi-sensei meandered over to us, stopping briefly behind Sasuke. I enhanced my hearing so I could listen in on what he was saying.

"Sasuke," he greeted. "Don't use your Sharingan."

"So you know about it?" Sasuke said, not sounding at all surprised. Whether because he thought they had to have noticed Orochimaru, or because of the slightly irrational belief that Sensei would always know, I couldn't tell.

"If that mark on your neck gets out of control, your life could be in danger," Sensei warned.

"I'm aware of that."

"Just to let you know, if it gets to that point, I'll have to step in and stop the fight. Good luck." Kakashi-sensei's parting comment was slightly sardonic.

It was interesting how the groups had divided. Neither of the two platforms were any better than the other, running an equal distance along the walls on opposite sides of the room. And yet, one side held the Rookie Nine as well as Team Gai and the other held the Sand Team and the other member of Kabuto's team. It was like the battle lines were already drawn.

"Kakashi-sensei," I greeted as he leant on the railings beside me.

"You wont believe what the Forest was like," Naruto said, folding his arms.

Sensei chuckled. "I've heard a few stories," he said. "And it looks like you've had it rough."

I grimaced. "Yeah. We got a little banged up." I couldn't help but touch fingertips to the still roughed up surface of my cheek.

"It looks like it's healing fine," Kakashi-sensei assured me.

"That's good," I agreed, leaning forward and resting my forehead against his bicep. My hand curled around his wrist, fingers touching the inside pulse point, out of sight. "Otherwise I'd have to wear a mask like you, and then everyone will laugh at me."

Jounin. 30 degrees, 20 meters. Chakra is O-R-O-C-H-I-M-A-R-U. I tapped out, my fingers moving the barest minimum distance to convey the message.

Kakashi-sensei gave a huffing laugh, even as his arm muscles tightened beneath my grip like steel cable. "Hey! I'm cool." He disengaged from me, hand going to my back to guide me away. "Asuma, tell her I'm cool."