He'd always been told to look at things from a different perspective.

To try and understand what you don't, said his father after he'd come to him with a question about being the head of a clan.

To make the best decision, chided his second year teacher after he'd gotten a hypothetical question wrong on one of his tests.

To know who's lying this time, growled Kiba as they trudged towards the destination of another one of the Third's senseless missions.

To make sure you survive, cautioned Sakura after she'd taken the executioner's blade.

All of it. It was all of those things. And yet what it took for him to finally get it was a couple fingers slick against his conjunctiva and half the world torn to red, then black.

The adrenaline and paranoia of the day before had abated in his sleep, Shino noticed as he propped himself up in the team's assigned room. They'd strung all three cots together in the corner and slept as they always did—too tired to remember their rifts and thrumming numb from mostly healed injuries.

He glanced to the left at the spot closest to the door. Sakura was gone. To the right. Akamaru nestled into a torn-up gray jacket while Kiba laid one arm on a pillow with his functioning arm thrown across his face.

It wasn't until dawn peaked over the horizon that the sheets shifted. Shino counted one thousand seven hundred twenty-two breaths since he'd woken for Kiba to groggily sit up with a stifled yawn. His fangs glinted in the dim morning light, and he was careful not to jostle his bandaged arm.

"Damn, still sore," he mumbled, swinging his head to the side. Shino was quiet and pale and his socket was unsettlingly gaping, and the last bed was empty. "Where'd she go?"

"The roof again, I imagine." Shino's voice scratched against his throat and he reached for one of the water bottles the medic left for them sometime in the night. His hand dove too far to the left and he hit the side of the bottle instead of grasping it. The hand clenched into a fist. "Why? There's little else to do but plan and wait, and the fact that she spent some hours there last night suggest that it might be a place she'll frequent until the next part of the exam begins."

"... Yeah, I guess."

Shino set his glasses on his face, the fuzziness melding together into a sharp picture. He'd gotten a stronger prescription not too long ago and the world was all that much clearer, but... now it was tilted. Half gone. It didn't matter how well he saw because it would never be whole—

He drew in a deep breath as his heart beat slowly rose. "You two should speak."

Kiba blinked and rubbed some of the crust from his eyes. "Huh?"

"You and Sakura." He turned in time to see his friend's mouth flatten. "It's obvious that your animosity was short lived. Why? If yesterday's events were an indication of anything, then this is a discussion you need to have."

Shino received as much of an answer as he was going to get when Kiba quietly slipped out of bed with a grim look of acceptance. He tugged on a pair of pants and a fishnet shirt—his back to Shino, he didn't notice his fingers itching to claw at what was left of his eye—and ambled towards the door.

"I'll... I'll find her," sighed Kiba. "Roof, right?" Casting a look over his shoulder, his brows crinkled at the sight of Shino staring at the wall ahead of him, unmoving. "Hey, you good? The medic's only—"

"I'm fine. Go find Sakura."

Kiba opened his mouth as if to protest but thought against it, his teeth clacking together when he abruptly shut his mouth. "I'll be back soon," he promised firmly. "Seriously. And if you're still not feelin' great I'll get the medic too."

He shuffled out the room.

Shino took a few moments to stew in those warm words and how at ease it made him feel.

Then he doubled over and ripped the glasses from his face. Akamaru jerked awake with a startled bark as his hand raised to his eye—his socket—and he held a finger to it, vainly hoping he was met with a wet, gel-like mold. But there was nothing. Just a hole in his face where Orochimaru had dug in and taken such a useless prize for what, to laugh?

It was a consequence of the shinobi life to come out in pieces or not at all, but he didn't think he would find out so quickly. So soon.

But what did he expect when he and the only friends he'd ever known were always a few steps away from dodging another kunai to the throat?

::

Kiba knew that last night the medic had muttered to herself while she healed his team—how odd it was for another group to appear within the first twelve hour window of the exams and how they'd made it looking like hell ran them through.

She didn't seem to notice that he'd been listening in. Or maybe she did and forgot to care, unwittingly lending him bleak insight to what the future could have in store for them.

The first part of their plan was done mostly right, Kiba knew. They weren't the first team to arrive and they'd given a wide enough time gap not to be associated with the Suna team, but they weren't far enough to not be put under consideration. Had they known they should've stayed in the forest for another eight hours, they wouldn't have come to the tower so quickly.

Kiba's arm throbbed dully in its bandages.

Then again, if they stayed longer, they'd be dead.

He sniffed out the concrete stairway that spiraled all the way up to the roof. He was lucky Sakura wasn't mad enough at him to use any of the scent blockers or overloaders he taught the team, else he would've ignored Shino's suggestion and crawled his ass right back into bed. They didn't even have to talk about their issues now.

Sakura's scream rattled her water prison, lightning crackling—

His shoulders hunched as his footsteps echoed on the steps. But Shino was right. He could never hate Sakura.

"I'm so-sorry! I didn't mean—I—I was scared an' should't've said those things—"

His back straightened when another scent crept up from his front and he looked up. His shoulders squared slightly at the sight of the Suna shinobi that silently tread down the steps, black hood pulled back but purple paint immaculate. Kiba thought to his own cheeks absent-mindedly, how smeared they must have looked with the grime of yesterday and the scratch of cheap pillow covers into the night. It would be in less than a year that his paint would turn to ink and there wouldn't be anything to remove the permanent mark of the Inuzuka—the tattooed face of a fanged warrior, his mom and all the other heads before her had called it.

But at least the symbol would be one he'd choose to bear. Unlike others.

The Suna shinobi barely spared him a glance as he brushed past and Kiba struggled to hold back a snort. How'd he manage to smell like sycamore when he lived in nothing but desert?

So Sakura really knew this guy. It was just another something he'd have to bring up.

A nervous energy started to prod his stomach when he stopped at the steel door that separated him from the rooftop. He might want to apologize and smooth things over, but that didn't mean she wanted the same thing. But... she didn't seem mad. Not that it meant anything; Sakura had always been the best at not letting anyone know how she really felt.

And the angriest he'd ever seen her was only a few days ago. At him.

"I didn't ask for this."

He grasped the door knob.

"I didn't ask why Dad left me—I didn't ask why Dad thought I was a mistake, because why else would he not come back for me when he promised he would?!"

Pushed it open.

"And if you thought I asked for you to look me in the eye and blame everything on me—that I was the one that made this team unlucky—I didn't."

And stepped through.

Sakura was dressed in another one of her navy tanks and black pants, gray hoodie probably tossed in the 'ruined clothes' pile at the foot of their cots. Her elbows propped her up on the half-rusted metal railing as she leaned forward and stared at the grounds below. Not a single strand of hair was out of place in the bun she could tie up in under ten seconds every morning, like always, and she didn't turn around to acknowledge him when she spoke.

"How are you holding up?"

Kiba stuttered to a stop as the door shut behind him. "I—uh, cool?" His face scrunched up. "I mean as cool as we can get after what happened and stuff." He shook his head. "Can we talk?"

She turned her head that time, faint amusement shining behind tired eyes. "We're talking right now, aren't we?"

"You know what I mean."

A beat, and then a quiet sigh. "I do. And I'm sorry."

Kiba only realized he was staring when the words register in his head and incredulity crawls up the back of his tongue. She was sorry? For what? She wasn't the one who got all up in her best friend's face to accuse them of being the one to get them all killed.

He winced. He probably deserved more than a dislocated jaw for that one.

"Nu-uh dude, you've got nothin' to be sorry 'bout," he interrupted. Sakura turned around fully and crossed her arms. "I shouldn't've gone all batshit on you earlier. But when you name dropped your dad? And the fact that crazy guy knew who you were?!" He floundered when she frowned and glanced away. "Not that—Not that it's a problem or—"

"But it is the problem," she sighed, and her shoulders slumped under the weight of a thousand pound guilt. "Had it not been for me, my past, my decisions, this wouldn't have happened to us." The space between her brow crinkled. "We could've been a normal team." Quieter, she added. "We could've been free."

And that was the crux of the problem, wasn't it? They were young, they were twelve, they were supposed to be genin with stars in their eyes and a future to behold. They were supposed to be naive to the shinobi life until a gut-sinking reality hit them on a mission that was a little too tough and a little too shattering. They were supposed to realize the life they were meant to lead by following the well placed stone on the path towards their future.

They were never meant to stray. They were never supposed to lose the Will of Fire.

Yet here they stood, snuffed out and burned.

Kiba took hold of her shoulders and forced her gaze up. "I'll always be with this team no matter what else those fuckers throw at us," he said with a conviction unbefitting of someone who learned too early of what it was really like to lose. "So we got in trouble and we got caught. So what? It wasn't just you or your past or any a' that! It was us too! Me and Akamaru and Shino! Did we quit after they caught us the first time?!"

Sakura blinked. "... No."

"Did we ever stop doing what we did? Stop tryna' do the right thing?!"

"No."

"Did we die when they tried to kill us?!"

"No? Kiba, what—"

"We're Unlucky Eight! We're cockroaches, dammit!" he exploded. "They're not gonna gut us no matter how much they try and we're in this together no matter what! And I shouldn't've forgotten that." She blinked again when he pulled her into a bone-crushing hug, noting the odd angle of her arms and the fact she couldn't even offer a consoling pat. "I'm sorry for what I said earlier. It wasn't your fault." He hugged her tighter. "None of it was."

Sakura could still feel the faint thrum of sparks beneath her skin. It crawled and itched; last night it made her swipe at a sensation that came and went so quickly she thought she'd imagined it until it came back an hour later, or two hours, or fifteen minutes.

There were times in those sleepless seconds when she wondered about the what ifs. What if it hadn't been her losing her lungs to lightning? What if she had to watch her friends drown and scream?

But she knew that if it had been her choice, she would've taken every single one of their injuries to spare them.

Shino grit his teeth. "Anything. Anything for them."

She let her head fall against Kiba's shoulder. His collarbone thumped against her skull, sturdy and solid, a reminder that it was really there. "Thank you." —for forgiving me for everything I've put you through.

::

He didn't know how he ended up on the floor, or how the sheet tangled his legs, or how his glasses were even more cracked than how he remembered them from yesterday. There was a faint ringing in his ears—the Academy bell? No, that didn't sound right. He... He was a genin, wasn't he? He graduated yesterday. Last week. A month ago. Some months ago?

What day was it?

"Shino, can you look at me?"

The voice sounded familiar. Who was talking to him? How did they get there?

"Just l-lift your head a bit and, uh, you'll see us?" Another voice joined in. "Sakura and I—I mean, I'm Kiba and that's Sakura? Akamaru's here too. He ran out and got us when you fell."

Shino tried to focus on what was in front of him. He saw his hand curled into a first on the concrete as the sweat on his forehead dripped onto his skin. Why was he looking at the ground? But he compelled himself to listen and raised his head—he fell?—slowly until he met two faces. One was pale with eyes the color of the agapostemon, calm and cool as they observed him. The other had red smeared on their cheeks and eyes not quite the color of osmoderma, but close. Those ones were wide with worry, or at least what he thought was worry, and flickered between him and the agapostemon as quickly as the cicindela hudsoni could crawl.

"We're in the tower in the center of the Training Ground 44," Agapostemon said. She. Pale. Pink hair. Sakura, right? "We completed the second portion of the chuunin exams yesterday and we need to wait for everyone else to finish. It's still morning and for now, we're safe."

Osmoder—no, Kiba. It was Kiba. He was sure of it this time. "Y-yeah! But we probably need t'see the medic in a bit. My arm's still bein' hella annoying and I'm pretty sure there were lollipops in that office." He grinned, and Shino saw fangs poking out his mouth. "We should snag a few this time."

Sakura rolled her eyes. The action was familiar.

Then, everything cleared. He remembered. He breathed.

Shino pinched his temple and tried to soothe the oncoming headache he knew he'd have. "I suppose you two are friends again. Why? The tension feels significantly lower than it had been over the last few days.

And just like that, the air eased around them and two bodies settled themselves on either side of him. Akamaru, who'd stood shaking with his tail between his legs, crawled into his lab with a worried snuffle.

Shino glanced to the right. Sakura was there with one arm on his shoulder and the other on her knee. To the left. Kiba clutched his bad arm close and leaned most of his weight into his friend's side.

The cots were crooked, the sheets were rustled, and the longer they stayed on the stone cold floor the more sore they knew they'd be later.

Though despite everything, it was almost... peaceful.

"Y'know, I'm kinda glad it's you guys I'm stuck with," Kiba said after some moments. "Like everything's fucked and, let's be real, we're probably gonna die before the year's up. But at least we're not being boring about it."

Shino picked up his glasses with a shaking hand and placed them on the bridge of his nose. His sight was cracked and all sorts of wrong he didn't know how to fix, but when Sakura held his hand to calm his tremors and Kiba looped his good arm around his to keep him steady, it made him think the world wouldn't grow as half empty as he'd thought it would.

The three of them stared at the blank wall ahead of them. After a panic attack, an argument, and Orochimaru, it all lead them to another silent agreement.

Another perspective.

"Mm," he agreed. "Though it's no use to die without leaving something significant behind."

"And what's it gonna be?"

They didn't see the memories of a self-proclaimed god flash behind Sakura's eyes. Of a god who promised peace but had yet to bring forth something other than war.

"We'll make a bucket list later," she promised, "but for now, we do what we came to the exams for."

Her lips quirked up as she met her friends' curious stares.

"We survive."

::

Kisame grimaced as he tugged the collar of the gray flak jacket he'd been stuffed in. Orochimaru was one of the most repulsive people he'd ever had the misfortune of meeting and working alongside with and, even after years of service followed by a prompt departure, that disgust had never lessened.

And now that he had to live with a seal of Orochimaru's moral perversion on his neck? He wanted to do nothing more than tear that bastard to shreds.

He let his hand fall to clasp the other behind his back. Another henge, another shift in his plans, and now he was standing behind one of the people he hated the most under the guise of 'supervising sensei' to the Oto team that managed to pass.

Twenty one genin stood in the main arena of the Tower. It didn't take him long to pick out his pup and her teammates, and once he spotted that pink hair paired with an iron expression in the last row, he tried not to smile. He heard they were the second to arrive after the Suna team with the Ichibi, and he wanted nothing more than to sweep her up in his arms and tell her over and over how proud he was.

But when he glanced over at Orochimaru and saw amusement weaving his eyes into an unsettling crease, it made him wonder.

"First, I'd like to congratulate all of you in finishing the second test," the Third Hokage started. He looked older and more frail in those swamping robes, but Kisame knew better than to underestimate a shinobi like that. "And before I go over the third test, I'd like to explain why it's all of you standing here with passing marks. The true purpose of what you endured to get here. Why do allied nations conduct these exams together?" He scanned the crowd before him. "We do it to garner stronger shinobi and keep a steady friendship among us all, and it won't do us all any good to misinterpret that statement. The tests are, so to speak, a battle between nations to showcase strength and power."

A few of the genin exchanged glances with one another. Kisame noted that his pup's team, Team Eight, watched the Hokage with something he wasn't quite sure how to make sense of.

"Instead of exhausting military strength for this cause, the idea of the Chuunin Exams was brought forth."

"Th-Then what's the point of this?!" the Kyuubi jinchuuriki—Uzumaki Naruto—blurted out. "You're not choosing chuunin?"

The Third exhaled a cloud of smoke. "This is still a way to select those worthy of becoming chuunin. But, this is also a venue for those who shoulder the weight of their nation's pride to fight for their lives and demonstrate their competency."

Akamaru bared his teeth.

Kiba's mouth curled into a silent snarl.

Shino's face grew cold.

And to Kisame's utter bewilderment, Sakura lifted her chin to mouth the words nation's pride like it was poison on her tongue. After casting a cursory glance around the arena, he saw that all the upper level shinobi were too focused on the Hokage to notice her action, and if he were more attentive to the old fool he would've missed it too.

He frowned.

"Feudal lords and prominent figures who request shinobi services are invited to the third test as guests. And all interested shinobi from any nation, participating or not, will be the ones to watch your battles. Whichever nation impresses the most are the ones who gain the bulk of job requests, and the requests towards nations deemed weak will decline."

"So why fight for our lives?" Kiba questioned. His tone was accusing, and it made Orochimaru grin like he'd found something particularly curious.

"The nation's strength is the village's strength," the Third said in a voice with a strange lilt. "And the only way for the true strength of the shinobi to show is in the fight for one's life—" Sakura tilted her head to the side— "because even one life has meaning, and that will be honored here."

She smiled, bitter and disbelieving. Kisame blinked.

That was a smile that one gave a another when they knew a lie just tumbled from their mouth. It was a smile that accepted deception even if it didn't approve of it; it resigned itself because there was no way of forcing the truth. Shinobi gave them when they knew they'd won some proverbial battle and civilians gave them when a rumor took one step too far.

He grew up around smiles like those.

And if a Hokage received such from a genin, it worried him more than it ought to.

But a smile like that... Orochimaru relished in it.

"Then why call it a 'friendship'?!" a pink-shirted genin spoke up from the back.

"Balance can and will be preserved by fighting and removing life," the Third stated firmly. "Fighting for your own life and your dream and the pride of your village is the shinobi way."

Kisame spared a look at the Hokage. A shinobi way, huh? The first one he had he'd left behind when he spilled Suikazan's blood across floors and walls and ceilings. The second passed along with Saki, and as he stood in that hospital room and watched as the light faded from her eyes, he knew he had to protect, protect, protect. From then on, his little girl was who he lived for. His shinobi way.

I won't let Sakura die before me.

"Anything is fine." The Ichibi jinchuuriki's face remained unchanging since the meeting was called. "What do we need to do for the third test?"

The Third nodded. "Now then."

A figure dropped before the Hokage in a respective kneel, head bowed and fist pressed into the ground. His body hung gaunt and his face looked like it had seen better days. "Hokage-sama, please allow me, Gekko Hayate, who was deigned the task of judge to explain."

The Third took a step back as Hayate turns to address the twenty one pairs of eyes that landed on him. "Ah, a circumstance according to the rules of these exams have come to light." He cleared his throat. Kisame pursed his lips. Konoha allowed sickly shinobi to operate in their ranks? "A preliminary test needs to be taken with the participation in the last test as the prize."

The Nara boy in the group sputtered. "What do you mean preliminary?"

"How do I explain this..." Hayate muttered. He cleared his throat again. "Perhaps it's because the first two tests were easy, or perhaps here's a better batch of participants this year. Either way there are too many of you left to compete, you see?"

Kisame straightened. He'd get to see his pup fight today?

"If all of you fought tomorrow, that's eleven matches to follow through a bracket system—" He interrupted himself with a few hacking coughs. "—excuse me. And none of us want to be there all day, so you either make the cut now or you don't." He plucked a small notebook from his flak jacket and opened it up somewhere in the middle. "Those of you who wish to drop out, please speak up now."

Half the standing teams had only arrived either this morning or the afternoon before, so if anyone has to worry about fatigue or not performing at their best, it was them.

"Ah, and I forgot to mention, but it will be individual battles from now on. Every genin for themselves," added Hayate. "It's your decision. There will be no team consequences."

Kisame quietly inhaled as the feeling of getting stabbed by a sharpened kunai jut out from his cursed seal. The waves of pain had been coming out faster and faster since taking it on, but he wouldn't give Orochimaru the satisfaction of letting it show.

He refocused on the participants when one of the attendees in the front raised their hand with an eye crinkle and a smile.

"Excuse me," he ventured. "I'll quit."

Hayate's finger slid down a page in his book. "Let's see... Yakushi Kabuto of Konohagakure, correct? You may step back."

"K-Kabuto? Why the hell're you quittin'?!" Naruto exclaimed. Sakura's gaze flickered to the side for the first time, eyes dark and calculating—a look that had Kisame pause. He didn't know what she'd experienced since he'd left her, but he didn't expect such an expression on her face. It was cold and unforgiving, a stark contrast to the bubbly smiles she smiled almost every day back in those easier years.

A part of him was glad that she was turning into a fine shinobi. A part of him hated that she might lose the sunshine she once asked so fervently to see one day.

"I'm sorry, Naruto," Kabuto sighed. "I'm worn out. Actually, when we faced the guys from Oto in the first test, I'd lost all hearing in my left ear. And being told that I'd be laying my life on the line? In a scenario like this? I won't."

Sakura turned back towards the front. There's no suspicion, only irritated resignation.

"I've seen that face a few times," the Third murmured. Kisame and Orochimaru lent their ears to the quiet conversation on the side between the Hokage and his two subordinates: first proctor Morino Ibiki and second proctor Mitarashi Anko. "As I recall, I'm sure he dropped out of the main battle from the last exam. What reason could he have to drop out then and now?"

Morino narrowed his eyes and considered. "Anko."

"I'm looking." Anko flipped through her clipboard. "Yakushi Kabuto has failed six straight times."

"And?"

"Ordinary grades, passed the graduation exam on his third try, completed two C-ranks and fourteen D-ranks. Nothing special. A little less than average, if you ask me." She let the papers flutter back over. "But he's also the boy brought back from the Battle of Kikyo Pass, if that means anything to you, Hokage-sama."

Kisame counted the strides it took Kabuto to retreat from the arena. Near silent steps, a character wrapped with riddles, and an underlying threat beneath a friendly facade. He remembered Orochimaru's twisted spies as he saw them, and he knew for a fact that Sakura never forgot a face.

Had he been to Ame when Sakura was still around? Had Sakura seen him before? Had he seen Sakura before? If he had, would he write her real name in the the skies for the world to see?

The quiet, unsettled air was interrupted by another cough. "Are there any more others who wish to quit?"

No one responded. Hayate coughed and shut his book.

"Alright. Let the preliminaries begin."

::

The second Kurenai heard the dismissal, she rushed up to the second floor and waited in a far back corner where she was sure none of the other teams would dare crowd within meters of her spot. With crossed arms and the impatient tapping of her feet, she eyed the stairs like a hawk.

Her kids. That's all she could think about the moment the meeting was called and she was told to stand in line with the rest of the sensei of the passing teams. They made it through—of course her team of wonderful, talented, reckless kids made it—but when she found out they made it through as the second team in the first day, she'd almost blown a gasket.

Their plan was to lay low. Ever since the beginning of their secrecy and their delving into the righteous and illegal, they'd wanted nothing more than to be a passing thought. A fuzzy recollection. And she respected that. But she knew the only way for them to call such attention to themselves was if they were compromised.

"Sakura found a viper in the grass."

She bit the inside of her cheek and shut her eyes. Despite the million questions running through her head, there was one she needed to know the answer to before everything else.

If they were compromised, who was responsible: Sarutobi Hiruzen or Orochimaru?

A headache started to creep up from the base of her skull. The fact that she even needed to ask that question was a different problem for a different day.

Kiba was the first to ascend the stairs with Akamaru in the front of his jacket, followed by Shino, then Sakura. Almost immediately she observed every movement, trying to single out new motions they could've picked up in the week she hadn't seen them.

She singled out three things.

The first was the way Akamaru cowered into his partner. Something worried him enough to keep him scared. If the comfort of his partner wasn't enough to calm him down, then there was a larger threat looming over the exams. Was it still Hiruzen? Had it changed to Orochimaru? Was it some sick combination of both?

And if Orochimaru was here for someone, who would she have to protect?

The second was Sakura's position at the back of the group. It was normal to assume her at the helm as she was the one to dive in head first and ask questions later, but she walked like she was trying to guard her team from something. Someone?

The third was the sway of Shino's head from side to side. It was slight and unassuming where most people wouldn't notice if they weren't looking, but he'd never done it before.

To the side, the electric sign board lit up with the first match of the preliminaries:

Akado Yoroi v. Uchiha Sasuke

She ignored it once her team walked within arms' reach.

Kiba was the closest so she pulled him in by the shoulder, ignoring his squawk of hey, Kurenai-sensei! and twisted his chin from side to side to scope out anything bruised or broken. Once he passed her inspection, she moved on to his arms, his torso, his legs.

No injuries. Good.

Her fingers gently threaded through Akamaru's fur. No bumps or nicks, and she even managed to get a quick tail wag from him. Also good.

Her hand shot out to the next closest victim of her scrutiny.

Sakura stared blankly when her cheeks were squished between two bandaged hands. "Hello, Kurenai-shenshei."

"Hello, Sakura," she bid back. Kurenai released her face and turned her around. "Kiba, Akamaru, I'm glad you're uninjured." She sighed. "I'll admit you've all had me worried, but I've resigned myself to being in that constant state. I'll have a full head of gray hair by the time you're chuunin."

She spun Sakura back forward, satisfied with her state. When she tugged Shino over and planted him before her, she already knew something was off when he kept his head bowed and glued his arms to his sides.

She rested a hand on his shoulder. "Shino..."

"Good morning, Kurenai-sensei," he greeted softly. He flexed the fingers of his left hand. "I understand you're concerned with our well-being and truly, we're grateful, but there are some... circumstances you need to be aware of later on. Why? Because this is a public setting. I would not like to discuss this here, please."

A rumble of shouts in the arena had Sakura turning her head to look, likely to catalog the ongoings for future reference rather than interest.

Kurenai squeezed his shoulder. "Alright," she said. "Update me on everything after the preliminaries. Both the good and the bad."

Though she doubted there would be very much good.

By the time she regained her bearings the first match was over in a breeze. Uchiha Sasuke was declared victor and both he and Akado Yoroi were hauled off to the infirmary before any permanent damage could settle. As the arena cleared and the sign board whirs, two more names spit out.

Abumi Zaku v. Aburame Shino

::

Orochimaru's tongue flickered out of his henge in unmasked excitement, earning himself a disgusted glance from Kisame.

"He's off the table too," he hissed. "Whatever weird fixation you have with him, I suggest you quit."

"Really?" Orochimaru mused. "And I thought you were only here for your little darling sweetheart."

"What I do ain't any a' your business," he sneered.

The sannin chuckled, a dry sound that did nothing but grate along the inside of the ears. "No need to raise your hackles, Ki-kun." His eyes still shone that putrid, sickly color. "I've already had my way with him."

And Kisame's skin crawled.

His fingers itched for Samehada that he'd cast to look like a regular katana slung across his back, but he recognized the provocation. And the truth. He didn't ask what kinds of twisted things he'd done to the boy because there was no way in hell he'd get a straight answer, so he crossed his arms and turned back towards the arena.

Aburame Shino was staring straight at them. At least, that's what he assumed through those tinted lenses.

And he kept at it until he was down the stairs and stood in front of his matched opponent.

"He can pick out your henge?" Kisame murmured.

"It seems that way, doesn't it?" replied Orochimaru. "I shouldn't be surprised. Sakura-chan has certainly surrounded herself with... interesting people."

Down below Hayate eyed the two competitors—Shino with his hands in his coat pockets and Zaku with arms flexed at the ready—then stepped back. "Begin!"

For three whole heartbeats no sound was made save for the shallow breaths of anticipation.

Then,

"If I fight here, you'll be finished," Shino said. His head tilted slightly to the left while his lenses don't quite meet his opponent's face. "I only ask this once of you. Withdraw."

"Heh, you think I'm scared of a weakling?" Zaku extended one arm, the hole in his palm visible for all to see. "One arm is enough ta' take care of you!" He charged forward with his arm barreling towards Shino's head, but it was blocked with ease, the latter barely moving as their forearms clashed.

"You can't beat me with one arm," he said. "And the only thing you're good for is to drive a message back."

Kisame could feel the cold edge of those words from the railing. It reminded him of Kakuzu on a day when Hidan decided to be his special brand of annoying. Curt, clipped, and probably this close to snapping the neck of the next person that didn't cut the shit.

And much like Hidan, Zaku either didn't know or didn't care that he was playing with fire. "Stop screwin' with me!"

In that instance, before Zaku could even think to bring up a leg and swing or shoot out a sound shock wave, his wrist was twisted in Shino's hand.

Kisame heard it before he saw it. They all did.

A faint hum shook the air, not like whispers nor footsteps, but something entirely inhuman. Everyone turned their heads behind them, to the right, the left, down, up, then flailed back at the bugs that crawled along the walls and the floor and from the three holes that opened up on Shino's left cheek.

The flood of bugs kept coming as Zaku grew more horrified when they start up his arms.

"What the fuck—" He shook off his shock and growled. "Your freak show's not gonna do jack shit!" His other hand came up, palm outward. "Zankuha!"

A blast of chakra-fueled air didn't propel from his hands.

Instead, the pressure erupted from his forearms and amputated his limbs from the elbow down.

Kisame's brows shot up to his hairline, and beside him, Orochimaru almost laughed. Shino wasted no time in pulling a shell-shocked Zaku forward, stepping up, and smashing an elbow so hard in the Oto-nin's face that the force sent him flying meters back to crash and lie in the blood that pooled from what was left of his arms.

Silence. Deafening, screaming silence.

The blonde on the Nara's team had her hands over her mouth. The kyuubi jinchuuriki's eyes were so wide they could've been mistaken for plates. The shorter green jumpsuit's hands shook.

But Kiba wasn't surprised. There was no disgust or repulsion, but he clicked his tongue like he'd been inconvenienced. Kurenai's eyes flickered around the battle so quickly her irises blurred into a brush of red. And Sakura—

And pup.

Pup was tired. Beside Kiba, she stood with the confidence he once taught her on a muddy training ground while the rain flattened their hair to their heads. Back straight, chin level, expression filled with everything she wanted the world to see and nothing she didn't.

But he couldn't speak for the distant look in her eyes. And when Hayate stepped in to announce the winner and medics rush the scene with glowing green hands and a stretcher, Shino looked up at his team and Sakura nodded like she was—

"Satisfied," Orochimaru said. "Sakura-chan was satisfied with the outcome of the match." His fingers tapped against his smiling lips. "Do you know what this means?"

Kisame repressed the memories of green eyes that lit up whenever Papa came home and turned. "What?"

"That Sakura-chan might have a little more red dawn in her than I first thought." He chuckled, eyes darkening in mockery. "Everything you wanted to keep her away from, she kept anyways." Quietly, he hummed. "That Hoshigaki blood is truly wonderful..."

"Hoshigaki blood. Not your blood," Kisame growled. "And don't give her credit just for that, she got here all on her own."

Orochimaru dipped his head in consideration, dark hair brushing against his cheek. "That she did," he agreed. "And a lovely little leader she's turning out to be." His eyes lit in mischief. "Do you think Pein would be proud?"

::

Kankuro whistled as he leaned against the railing. So Konoha did have some hardcore genin, absolutely nothing like those brats he ran into when he first got to the village. And yeah, maybe that Uchiha Sasuke had something to watch out for with the way his kekkai genkai flashed and how he slammed down his opponent using some wild taijutsu move, but Aburame Shino?

He tore off that Oto-nin's arms without even touching them.

It was gruesome and nothing he'd ever consider doing himself, but he could appreciate the strength and strategy of a good fight from afar. Sure, they were working alongside Oto in a siege against Konoha, but that didn't mean he had to like those stuck up wannabes who thought Orochimaru was some sort of God.

Kankuro tracked Shino's face that entire match. Had he gone straight for the kill with a smile, it would've been like watching another Gaara on a rampage. But there had been some finesse in the way those forearms exploded in synchrony before Abumi was forced into unconsciousness.

He met Sakura's eye across the way. She smirked. He returned it.

At least she isn't the only impressive one on her team.

He tore his eyes away before his siblings could catch an inkling of a suspicion and moved his attention to the board. Text cycled through for a handful of seconds before the next two names appear.

Tsurugi Misumi v. Kankuro

He felt the burn of Sakura's stare and resisted the urge to throw up a smug look—we're not here for fun and games, we're not here to make friends—as a frown abruptly took the place of his smirk. Right. Not here to make friends. Siege on Konoha. He knew what he had to do and Temari had no reason to get on his back about it.

Kankuro walked past a scoffing Baki, a scowling Gaara, and an indifferent Temari on his way down to the stadium.

But if he chanced a look over a shoulder and a little down to the right, he would've seen Sakura, the loosened coil of her shoulders, and her assurance that he wouldn't come out of this match as anything but the victor.

::

Kisame didn't pay much attention to this one.

He'd seen enough puppet tricks out of Akasuna no Sasori, and watching some of the more basic ones replicated by a newer Sunagakure generation entertained him if anything, but it was a fight that lasted less than five minutes. The Suna genin's deception was smart and Tsurugi was too full of himself to even consider falling for a decoy, so the outcome had already been decided then.

When the names Sakura v. Yamanaka Ino appeared on screen, his blood started to pump that much faster.

"Aren't we excited?"

Kisame exhaled through his nose and silently counted to ten. "Are you going to keep asking me questions like that?"

"Well, no need to be testy." Orochimaru stepped close enough for their arms to touch, and Kisame barely restrained himself enough to rip that very arm from its socket. "All I meant was that I'm just as eager to see that little Yamanaka get put in her place as you are."

"Go, Sakura-chan!!" a voice called from the other side of the tower. The Uzumaki practically hung over the railing, smile wide and both hands waving in the air. "I'll be cheerin' you on, 'ttebayo!!"

For the first time since the preliminaries started, Sakura smiled.

And Kisame felt his heart slowly sink. He already took away everything she ever knew when he allowed Konoha to take her.

Could he take away one of her friends too?

In the arena, Hayate called start.

Both moved at the same time.

Sakura swung a roundhouse kick towards Yamanaka's head —that's odd, she was slower than she should be—blocked a punch to her face and countered with a low sweep that was avoided with a quick jump and a back flip. She was crouched when she reached for a handful of kunai—her opponent should already be downed and pierced through the leg—and launched them just a little off their mark. One was caught, thrown back, and she barely avoided it with a quick shift in stance.

Baffled, Kisame scoped out her team. Kiba's nose was scrunched like he swallowed something bitter and Shino had barely bat an eye (like he could see through those glasses, but one could guess), but there were no tells. Not even from Kurenai who watched with a gaze just as keen as when Shino fought his part.

"She's throwing the match," he whispered.

"Indeed. That certainly isn't the little Sakura-chan that I watched drown," Orochimaru drawled, smiling at how quick his companion's head snapped toward him. "She may not have the moniker of beast like some of us, Ki-kun, but I saw you in her eyes when I asked her to thank me. That girl in the forest held the capacity to gut any Konoha duckling I could offer on a plate. This girl is some mediocre genin that must've passed the Academy on a pity plea." He sneered. "Believe me when I say she's a beautiful actress."

Another million questions swelled his brain. Why would she have to thank Orochimaru? When did they meet in the forest? Just... how much has she grown without him?

Kisame bit his tongue. "Why go through the trouble?"

Orochimaru licked his lips, his gaze trailing from Sakura, then slowly up to old Sarutobi Hiruzen. "Now that's the grand question of the day, isn't it?"

::

Sakura took every other punch. Every third kick. Every time she blocked she cycled through five different forms before she started over from the beginning, but that's only for physical attacks. For the weapons she didn't let a single one hit—block, dodge, block, dodge, block, dodge—every block rang with metal and every dodge was just a little too close it could've hit if she stood a centimeter to the side.

It was a routine. It was a pattern. It was formulaic.

Hiruzen knew exactly what she was doing.

He ground down on his pipe until it was on the verge of shattering, the risk of splintering his tongue the only thing stopping him from going through with it. Her and that team, Unlucky Eight he'd heard them called around the career chuunin, were something to behold.

Shino's display was succinct and cruel. His warning of blasted arms and a knockout was one of his capabilities and that what he did wasn't even close to the full extent of them. Maybe no one else knew that, but if someone could leave Danzo's clutches with an even greater will of defiance, then they were something to watch and fear.

Shino destroyed while he sought the knowledge to heal. Sakura was all sharp wit and stone cold facts but played a lie so well he would've been impressed if he wasn't being so thoroughly mocked. And Kiba was one to take all the opportunities he could see...

How much Kiba would come to add had yet to show.

Hiruzen pulled the pipe from his lips and exhaled a billow of smoke. Sakura was making herself damn well evenly matched when she followed Ino's bunshins, taijutsu, and evasion tactics. Thirty more seconds in and Sakura started to quicken her pace, forcing Ino to double up. Fifteen seconds after that and Sakura breaks her pattern. Twenty seconds from then is when he realizes she'd decided to have Ino run her chakra reserves dry for a purely physical battle.

Apparently, that was all it took for one of them to lose it.

"That does it!" snapped Ino. She thrust both arms out as two fingers and thumbs come together to form a circle. Sakura frowned—with feigned confusion, Hiruzen imagined —and took a defensive stance, then visibly realizing her legs were trapped by chakra strings. "I'm tired of you, dammit! Shintenshin!"

::

Orochimaru leaned forward. The dear Hoshigaki caught herself in a bind and braced herself to take on the mind transfer like a masochist took a knife to the shoulder blade. But before the Yamanaka could even complete it, could even shed every ounce of her consciousness, Sakura palpably wrenched forward and Yamanaka's spirit slammed back into herself so hard she toppled backward.

Sakura held her shoulders back with an ice cold aura. "When you fight me," she said, "you stay out of my head." Yamanaka doesn't move. In response, she shunshinned, pulled her up by her purple top, and brought her nose to nose. "Understand?"

Yamanaka snapped out of it by kicking Sakura back and launching herself to the far end of the arena.

"... It's that easy to break out of a mind bind like that?" asked Kisame. The lines in his face were marred with concern as his pup wiped sweat from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. "She threw 'er back like a ragdoll."

"Not at all," Orochimaru grinned, sly and plotting. "In fact, it should be near impossible to do so at such speeds."

The match ended in a tie from a double knockout, thus a double elimination. The Yamanaka was far too drained of chakra to try any more tricks, and it appeared Sakura had been too (but he couldn't be sure, chakra control was one of the reasons Pein had such an interest in her), so twin punches to the jaw equaled a forfeit.

Two more match ups flew by as merely a passing interest. One was between a Konoha kunoichi and a Suna kunoichi as the latter brutalized her opponent so thoroughly that she was hauled off to the infirmary almost as quickly as Abumi had been. The other was between a Nara and one of Orochimaru's own subordinates, a genjutsu specialist, and Orochimaru knew her cockiness was what brought her downfall.

But the next match. Oh, that was one that would have him in knots.

Uzumaki Naruto v. Inuzuka Kiba

Sakura, appearing only slightly disheveled and like she'd never been in a fight in the first place, bent towards Kiba and said something behind her hand. Whatever it was had him huff and grin, and Orochimaru read the movement of his lips with a quirked brow.

"Don't worry. We'll be gracious 'bout it."

Uzumaki was mostly rowdy swings and shouts of excitement all the way down to the starting point. "Hey! Hey, Kiba! Akamaru! Ready for me to kick your guys' asses all over this dumb tower?!"

Kiba laughed as he pat his partner's head. "Think whatever you want, Uzumaki. I'll turn you inta' a human mop and wipe the floor with ya'!"

At his side, Kisame chuckled at the exchange and he nearly rolled his eyes. Ever the soft sort with children when the only tangible things about them were how easy their brains could be meshed and molded. He didn't say anything this time, though, because angering Kisame to unfathomable heights was in poor taste, even for him.

The moment Hayate signaled the fight to a start, chakra threaded through Kiba's muscles and he dashed forward at almost neck-breaking speeds to full body slam into Uzumaki and chuck him across the arena.

Must of the first half of the battle went as such. Uzumaki was positively overwhelmed and couldn't keep up as he was bombarded with lightning-fast taijutsu in a smoke ball dense field. At least, at first glance.

Kisame, who specialized in fighting in foggy and sight-free conditions, pointed out the first thing he noticed. "Uzumaki switched places with Akamaru."

"A fair tactic."

"Kiba's not supposed to notice, so he's attacking who he thinks 's Uzumaki, but is actually Akamaru."

"Ah yes, thank you for the explanation. Might you please tell me about what chakra is next? Perhaps the definition of a jutsu?"

Kisame glared. "Kiba's an Inuzuka. Clan's got a great sense of smell and hearin', right?" Before he gets cut off with another snarky reply, he continued. "So, with all that enhanced and thinkin' he's tricked, why's he pretending to hit Akamaru and why's Akamaru pretending to get hit?"

Orochimaru paused and watched as the smoke cleared. And just as Kisame said, 'Uzumaki' was downed and 'Akamaru' had turned to sink his teeth in his partner's arm. The switch happened and everyone was surprised, even Kiba, and the match furthered.

"Another thrown fight," he murmured. At this point, he could freely admit he had no idea what Sakura's team's aim was. The first fight could be called the most brutal thus far and the second the most meticulously drawn out. The third was quite possibly a show of suspense, and if Kiba kept going the way he was, Uzumaki might actually end up winning, marking the battle for the underdog. A team with a win, a tie, then maybe a loss.

"Kill the... the Hokage?"

Were they trying to make a stand?

"I hate everything you... stand for. I ha-hate everything you... did..."

Akamaru morphed into a Kiba clone and the lightning-taijutsu began again. But even with full clarity and double the power, Uzumaki dodged better and started to think like a real shinobi—predicting attacks and constantly planning ahead.

It wasn't until he dodged straight up in the air that Kiba and Akamaru took a chance and leapt up as two torrents.

"GATSUUGA!"

A blur of orange collided into the stone floor with a crack as blood started to streak into spiked blond hair. Kiba stretched up from his crouch and strode forward toward the shaking body.

"Oi," he said. "Get up and finish this fight." He stopped just short of the face-down body. When Uzumaki made no grand gesture, he stuck his hands in his pockets. "Come on! I thought you wanted ta' be the future Hokage!"

"I'll hate every... everything you decide to d-do."

Then a pepper bomb was thrown out from Uzumaki's hand straight towards Kiba's nose. The Inuzuka staggered back and tried to breathe as nine of his opponent's clones swarm the arena and chant a war cry as one.

"I'll be Hokage one day!" they shouted. Orochimaru tutted at the high octave of his voice. "And they'll all know the name U-!"

One of the clones punched Kiba back and second snatched Akamaru and held him in a choke hold.

"-zu-!"

Another barreled him to the side.

"-ma-!"

And a fourth kicked him up in the air.

"-ki!"

The real one shunshinned above him and drove a heel kick down towards the arena. "Naruto, dattebayo!"

And it was the end of the match.

The medics carried Kiba off out on a stretcher. His eyes opened just before they passed the arch towards the hallway and he smirked, settling himself into the cloth of the stretcher.

Orochimaru saw his comfort and satisfaction. Another plan fulfilled, it seemed, yet he still didn't know exactly what for. Why throw the matches, go through the trouble? What could be worth risking their careers? Was it a power struggle? Politics?

"But if you eve-ever had a con... conscience—"

His gaze slid to his old sensei who'd born no expression the entire fight.

He grinned. He always loved a good puzzle.

"—then you be... better make sure the bastard bleeds."

He looked back to one Hoshigaki Kisame who was oblivious to the gears turning in his head.

After all, Hoshigaki Sakura and her team wanted the Hokage dead.

What fun would it be if he just told her father about it?

::

At this point, Hiruzen knew Danzo was right.

Shino destroyed while he sought the knowledge to heal. Sakura was all sharp wit and stone cold facts but played a lie so well he would've been impressed if he wasn't being so thoroughly mocked.

And Kiba was one to take all the opportunities he could see, but wouldn't hesitate to lend an opportunity to someone who deserved it.

Shino won because he could. Sakura tied because she could. Kiba lost because he could.

And he didn't kill them because he couldn't.

Hiruzen sighed, long suffering and silent.

He knew what he had to do.

::

Thank you all for being so patient with me with the long stretches of time between updates! <3

Also I have an Instagram now, still under writer168! All covers and fanart submitted will be posted both there and tumblr, so check it out!

And if you haven't already heard, I've created a discord server! Here's the link: https://discord.gg/YdkfMyW

The server even includes a sneak-peek channel where I'll update quick looks at chapters I'm currently working on if I'm making you guys wait too long!

Now we end this chapter with some wonderful art by:

Annella_chan!

WattPearl!

FatedHate !

so-fan !

Tigger from TheWritersBlock_ !

shiirasai!

d3athold3R!

and AwesomeDragonTamer (caleb-crow on Tumblr)!

And here's my new profile pics by WattPearl!