Chapter 15 - 15

Gaara drifted through the halls of Suna's capitol building. Two weeks away from the third stage of the Exam, he had a lot on his mind. Chiefly, he was concerned with security. The Chunin Exams were always a nightmare. Inviting the other four Kages—and they always came in these new days of peace and reconciliation—usually meant inviting their top jounin too. Then there were all the extra genin running around. Thankfully most of those were gone now.

Only fifteen genin had made it through the second stage and four were from Konoha. Three were arguably Konoha's best genin and one was completely unknown, though for some reason Tsunade had selected that one to complete the team with the Hyuuga and Sarutobi. Only two genin from Suna this year, which was embarrassing if only because a team from Hidden Mist had passed—the only other full team to pass—even with the unexpected sandstorm. Iwa and Kumo only had one representative each as did Grass, Moon, Waterfall and Sound.

Gaara wasn't entirely sure how he felt about the continued survival of Otogakure. After Orochimaru's ultimate demise, the village had held itself together by the skin of its teeth. Konoha, being its closest neighbor, had eventually investigated and declared the village stable. Its current master was one of the few jounin native to the Land of Rice Paddies rather than a missing-nin from a different country. The village itself was also well and truly hidden, a rarity in their world, as it had abandoned all of Orochimaru's former labs and been rebuilt entirely in a new location.

Gaara sighed and turned around. He wouldn't get any work done thinking like this. Instead he decided to review the training of their guests. Unlike other Hidden Villages, the safest training grounds in Suna were annexed to the capitol building itself, which in addition to the kazekage's office contained almost all other government offices and a significant number of the research laboratories, so it was easy enough for Gaara to track down the foreign genin.

Each team had a training ground assigned to it. For most of the competitors, that meant one-on-one training with the remaining genin and his or her jounin instructor. The Suna genin were presumably training elsewhere. The Konoha genin had been assigned two separate training fields, but all four occupied the same one. Or at least they did theoretically.

When Gaara arrived at the balcony overlooking Konoha's practice area, he found Isago, one of Baki's most loyal jounin, but only one of the Konoha genin. It was Kurosaki Ichigo, the unfamiliar genin. At his side, there was also a toy lion, which Gaara had been informed was some sort of puppet, wearing a matching red scarf around its neck, but it wasn't currently moving. Instead, Ichigo was sitting cross-legged in the center of the training ground. There was a bokken planted upright in the sandy ground in front of him, but lying across his lap was a much larger sword. He appeared to be meditating.

"Where is everyone else?" asked Gaara.

Isago kept his face impassive. "It is well before breakfast, kazekage-sama. None of the teams are training this early."

Gaara resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He appreciated the ability to sleep after Shukaku's removal, but he found his duties much more manageable if only slept a few hours a week. He had never been very good a keeping track of things like mealtimes anyway.

"Then why is this one here?" he asked.

"He meditates every morning. It is possible he has insomnia too, kazekage-sama," said Isago.

"Perhaps, he finds meditation easier to achieve without his teammates around," said Gaara. "Konoha-nin are a boisterous lot."

"It's possible," said Isago.

"But you don't think it's likely," said Gaara.

"No, kazekage-sama," said Isago. "Ah, here, you'll see why."

Gaara watched the training ground with mild interest. After a moment, a head popped over the retaining wall followed by two more. Gaara recognized some of the more promising Academy students. Once they had situated themselves on top of the wall, the started tossing pebbles down on the genin. Gaara could already visualize an international incident waiting to happen.

Instead of hitting Kurosaki, the pebbles hit an invisible barrier and abruptly changed direction shooting into the wall, or ground, or back into the air. Gaara observed for a while and realized the rate at which the pebbles flew away from the barrier was proportional to strength with which they were thrown and that the goal of the students was to make their pebble bounce up at an angle where it could hit the shield again on the way back down. It reminded Gaara, faintly, of watching children skipping stones across lakes in other countries. The record here seemed to be five bounces.

"Why are they throwing rocks at the konoha genin?" asked Gaara. They looked like they were having fun, but the words international incident loomed once again in his mind.

"As I understand it, they were running around looking for the foreign genin and accidentally dropped something on him," explained Isago.

"Something?" asked Gaara.

"I was never able to determine if it was a roof tile or a practice kunai," admitted Isago. "And Kurosaki didn't notice. After a few days, I asked if it bothered him. He said, no, and that Zangetsu thought it was funny."

"Zangetsu?" prompted Gaara.

"I think it's the name of the sword, kazekage-sama," said Isago. "The big one, not the bokken."

Gaara frowned slightly. All ninja were unhinged to a degree, especially when compared to the much larger civilian population, but most typically refrained from assign their weapons feelings, and when they did, the feelings were closer to a lust for blood than amusement at children's games.

"Perhaps it is a habit of Konoha-nin," suggested Gaara. They tended to be crazy in a different way than the rest of shinobi world, even their megalomaniac criminals claimed motivations like love and peace to justify their actions.

"I thought something similar, kazekage-sama," said Isago.

"If you're not worried, is there a particular reason you're still watching?" asked Gaara curiously.

"I'm a bit worried about what will happen if they try to throw something bigger at him," explained Isago. "Or if they get excited and throw one of them at him."

Gaara watched as an ill-tossed pebble hit the barrier, bounced off, and shattered on the wall below the children's feet. "I would guess a very large splash," said Gaara darkly. "Try to avoid it."

"Yes, kazekage-sama," agreed Isago.

Gaara continued to watch for a moment longer. He had assisted Temari with the structure of the first stage of the Exam. Now that he had a moment to think, he remembered that Kurosaki had had a rather peculiar solution to the communication problem.

Rather than coming up with an alternate form of communication or removing the binding deliberately—the only stricture was against losing the bindings, not something every team noticed, and grasping a victory from the jaws of defeat was the Suna way—Kurosaki had had his teammates punch him to convey their parts of the poem. Perhaps if the genin could read words in the fists of others, he could feel emotions in weapons also.

Silently, he turned at walked away. Isago was more than capable of keep watch over the Leaf-nin and the Academy students. If it was before breakfast, then he had plenty of time to work before the other genin arrived. He could review their progress then. Besides, thinking too much about Konoha shinobi gave him a headache. Naruto was one thing, a whole village of crazies was quite another.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Ichigo retreated deeper into his Inner World as the ominous presence of the kazekage began to retreat. Gaara of the Sand had nearly as much spiritual pressure as Naruto. Unlike Ichigo's rowdy cousin, he seemed to have some amount of control over it too, keeping it tightly compressed to his body. If Ichigo pressed, he could feel it as easily as the biju in the desert—in fact they felt eerily similar—but otherwise Gaara was as unremarkable as any high-level shinobi. It freaked out Ichigo.

"Pay attention!"

Ichigo ducked a swing from White Zangetsu and brought his own zanpaktou up to block. They were sparring—communicating the best way they knew how—while Old Man Zangetsu watched from his usual perch on the flagpole. Ichigo wasn't sure if they were trying to help him train or knock his nightmares out of him.

"The last one dumbass," snapped Shiro. "What? You think I prefer this stupid sealed form?"

"It could have been a daito," said Ichigo. "You're the one who insisted on the giant kitchen knife."

"It's a Khyber knife! A Khyber knife!" shrieked Shiro. "Stop doing that!"

White Zangetsu lunged at Ichigo with renewed vigor and all verbal conversation stopped as they exchanged a flurry of blows. The zanpaktou was a far better swordsman than Ichigo, but he held his own until Shiro's rage tapered off.

"We chose this size for a reason, Ichigo," said the Old Man. "How often do you use the blade for a shield?"

If the zanpaktou wasn't so large, Ichigo would have taken a lot more hits, especially from opponents that used a barrage of ranged weapons.

"And limited as you are by your physical body, you undoubtedly would have died," continued Old Man Zangetsu.

"Yeah," said Shiro. "As long as you're stuck in the meat-bag, something has got to look tough."

"Please don't call my body a meat-bag," said Ichigo.

Shiro scowled. "Well, if you had dropped the meat-bag before now, you could have been king of heaven."

"Don't remind me," muttered Ichigo.

"Or even Hueco Mundo. You defeated that bastard, Aizen. You were the strongest Hollow around. Las Noches could have been yours. That hottie Hallibel would have followed you after you rescued her, so would Nel, and Grimmjow, if you're into that sort of thing," continued Shiro.

Ichigo groaned. "Just stop talking."

He didn't want to rule anything. He didn't want to die either. Ichigo just wanted to live his life and protect the people important to him.

"Then you must get stronger and fight for your place in this world," said the Old Man.

"Yeah, no more of this running away shit," muttered Shiro.

Ichigo scowled. "I didn't have any choice. Unless you think—

Shiro waved a hand dismissively. "Yeah, yeah. I get it. You didn't want to kill your friends in Soul Society. Whatever. We could've done it, you know. But it never would have stopped raining. I didn't want my hair to frizz."

Ichigo's mouth softened into a rueful grin. "Thanks."

Shiro pointed his sword at Ichigo. "Hey now, none of that. You've got to get your game face on. Dominate these stupid Exams, and get stronger."

"I don't actually want to be a ninja," protested Ichigo.

White Zangetsu scoffed and shot a burst of energy from the tip of the blade. Ichigo rolled out of the way and wondered why he had even bothered learning to seal his zanpaktou in the first place if he could still use the major attack. Weren't other shinigami limited to using that sort of thing in shikai?

"We need it to keep you out of trouble," said Old Man Zangetsu bluntly.

Ichigo dropped his head in embarrassment.

"And all those morons in Soul Society thought it was pathetic that you didn't have enough control," added Shiro helpfully. "We sure showed them."

"It was your fault in the first place!" squawked Ichigo. "And they still think my control is bad since you're so big."

"Their opinion is irrelevant," said the Old Man.

Shiro scowled. "Yeah. Those guys can suck my—

"Hold that thought," said Ichigo raising a hand. He checked his physical body. "The rest of the team is here."

"Learn well, Ichigo," said the Old Man.

Shiro slung his copy of Zangetsu over his shoulder. "Yeah, I'm sure illusions will be helpful one of these days. Look at what Aizen did with them."

Ichigo scowled at the reminder and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was in the real world and the other Leaf-shinobi had arrived for training. In addition to Konohamaru, Hanabi, and Kurenai. They were also training with fellow genin Mitokado Hoseki and Yamanaka Hanashi, his jounin instructor.

Konohamaru and Hoseki's grandparents had been on the same genin team, so they knew each other socially, even though Hoseki was only thirteen. Hanashi, he had been informed, was one of Yamanaka Ino's many cousins and had heard all about Ichigo from her. Ichigo could barely remember saying three words to Ino, mostly "good morning" or "good evening" as they passed each other in the street, but she lived with Sakura, worked with Anko, and apparently loved to gossip.

Hoseki was a strong contender for chunin. If Ichigo hadn't been here, he would have been the third member of Team Three instead. He didn't resent Ichigo's presence though, and he worked just as hard as Konohamaru and Hanabi.

Privately, Ichigo was disturbed at the thought of a thirteen-year-old on a battlefield, but Naruto had taken the Exam at twelve, even if he failed that time, and during war even younger children were promoted to chunin. Kakashi had been promoted at age six. It wasn't anything like Zaraki Kenpachi's daughter Yachiru, who despite her young appearance and mentality, was decades, if not centuries, older than Ichigo.

Kurenai stood with her hands on her hips staring at the pock-marked wall surrounding the training grounds. She was frowning slightly. "There are even more holes today."

Ichigo tried to keep his expression neutral and quickly "sheathed" Zangetsu hiding the blade inside his body with the rest of his soul. He stood, futilely dusting off his pants, and re-tied his bokken. Kon didn't even bother waking up from his nap.

At the start of their month of training, Kurenai had confronted Ichigo and demanded to know if anything she taught him could possibly give him an edge in the Exams. The honest answer was no. Even if Ichigo limited himself to shinobi techniques, his taijutsu alone was enough to insure a victory. He hadn't even needed to say anything, Kurenai had read the answer from his face.

Instead of the same intense training the other three were working on, she had proposed teaching him one elemental jutsu each week—she had already taught them a Water jutsu on their trip to Suna—and her own specialty, genjutsu. Ichigo was leery of illusions after Aizen Sousuke had managed to fool Soul Society for more than a century, but he also could see their value.

Ichigo was enjoying the genjutsu lessons despite himself. They were a lot like kido in some ways, which reminded him of lessons with Kukaku, especially the amount of concentration required. Genjutsu required a certain degree of chakra control that he sometimes struggled with but Kurenai assured him that was normal for beginners. She didn't automatically assume he was horrible at chakra control the way his shinigami instructors had with his reiatsu control.

The tree-walking technique Ichigo learned was one type of chakra control technique. Another was water-walking, which they had practiced some in Konoha but couldn't in Suna. A third was the Leaf Concentration technique, where Ichigo had to focus his chakra on a leaf on his forehead. Since leaves were a rarity in Suna, Ichigo had to move his hitai-ate from his arm to his forehead and concentrate on the symbol instead.

All of the chakra control techniques were a bit like meditation once Ichigo got used to them, and sometimes he slipped into his Inner World by accident. He tried to avoid that because White Zangetsu took great pleasure in punching him in the face whenever it happened, and Ichigo usually roused in time to suffer a strike on the head from Kurenai for failing to concentrate.

The best part of genjutsu, in Ichigo's opinion, was that he could create any illusion he wanted. Kido were generally rigid having been perfected and refined over centuries. Tiny adjustments could change the effect of the kido, but large adjustments made the spells collapse. Genjutsu were pure imagination given life, even if only in the minds of others.

His greatest success to date was convincing everyone in the training grounds that they were standing outside Las Noches. The golden dome of Suna's capitol had become Aizen's grand palace, and the hot, sunny desert of Wind Country was replaced by Hueco Mundo's moon-bright sky and endless stretches of white sand. No one had believed they were someplace else, which was ultimately the point of genjutsu, but they had all seen it, which Kurenai said was a step in the right direction.

"You're going to learn another control exercise today," Kurenai told him as he rose.

"Oh?" asked Ichigo.

"This is actually a pre-cursor to performing more difficult kinds of genjutsu," she explained. "You're going to learn how to hide your chakra signature completely."

"That can be done?" asked Ichigo. "Doesn't using chakra at all require raising your chakra level?"

"It takes a great deal of mental preparation and concentration, so it's not very useful on the battlefield. But it's an extremely important skill in infiltration and observation missions," explained Kurenai.

"Alright," said Ichigo. "How does it work?"

"The first part, which is what you'll be working on, involves molding chakra into the shape of your body. The goal is to keep all the chakra beneath your skin without any flare ups," said Kurenai.

"Isn't it just easier not to use chakra?" asked Ichigo.

Kurenai shook her head. "Everyone uses chakra unconsciously to fuel their body. The difference between civilians and shinobi is that the former never develop any control over their chakra and only generate what is necessary for survival while shinobi learn to manipulate chakra to enhance their natural abilities and form jutsu. Even the average chunin can judge the difference between a trained shinobi and an untrained civilian by the quality of their chakra. A skilled sensor can judge a shinobi's strength and sometimes their affinity too."

Ichigo scowled and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, Sakura said something like she was surprised we could still mold chakra at our age since we had never used it before."

"You can compare it to the elasticity of the brain," said Kurenai. "When you're young, it's very easy to learn new skills and information, but as you age, the ability to create new pathways in the brain lessens. Chakra works in a very similar fashion. That's why we start training so young in the Academy, and why it becomes harder to earn a promotion the older you are."

"Konohamaru and Hanabi don't seem to have any trouble," said Ichigo. "Other than their miserable luck."

"That's because Konohamaru and Hanabi have continued to train at a level similar to that of their peers," explained Kurenai. "They really are more than capable of becoming chunin at this point. Konohamaru is much closer to jounin level with his mastery of ninjutsu. Hanabi hasn't had as much success with her goal because the law forbids genin from joining ANBU, and she can't escape the expectations of her clan until she gains a promotion."

"Oh, I see," said Ichigo. "And I guess, genin don't take the sort of missions that would show off her skills as an assassin."

Kurenai shook her head. "Several shinobi have understood her intentions, much like yourself, but…"

"But they won't teach her, unless she asks, because that's not the sort of thing you teach to someone who doesn't really want it," said Ichigo. "What a mess."

"Pride is the great pitfall of the Hyuuga Clan," summarized Kurenai. "Now, in your situation, the Uzumaki were famous for their physical endurance, large chakra reserves, and potential longevity. It's likely that you can still learn to manipulate chakra at your age because of that inheritance."

"On that side too, huh?" asked Ichigo. "Large chakra reserves don't exactly sound useful for learning genjutsu."

Kurenai smiled. "They're actually more of a hindrance than anything else. I'm very impressed with your progress so far."

"So this chakra control exercise is going to be really hard, is what you're saying," said Ichigo.

"That's right," said Kurenai.

"Great," said Ichigo. "So I'm supposed to mold chakra, but keep it under my skin, right?"

"I find it helps to visualize both the chakra and your body. You can consider that part of your genjutsu training, also," suggested Kurenai. "And you might want to move into the corner. I'll notice when you get it."

Ichigo scooped Kon off the ground and moved to the minimal shade provided by the walled-in training ground. There was no need to give himself sunstroke while he practiced. He settled in the corner, legs naturally falling into lotus position, and concentrated on his own chakra.

Ichigo had a hard time gauging the amount of chakra he possessed. He knew he had large reserves but not the monstrous amount others described when they felt his reiatsu. Still, as Ichigo tried to draw his chakra inside his skin, he could never quite grasp all of it. If felt like he was trying to wrap his arms around one of the huge trees that grew around Konoha; no matter how far he stretched he could never quite touch his fingers together. His chakra constantly slid from his grasp.

As the morning stretched, Ichigo attempted several different visualizations. Using Kurenai's suggestion, he imagined pulling his chakra into his skin and immediately developed the prickling sensation that occurred whenever he reinforced his body with pure reiatsu rather than using blut vene or hierro. He had some success but knew that if he tried for too long, his skin would start to burn away under the strain.

He tried using the focusing technique for creating the kido cannon ball, but that method collected the chakra outside his body initially. When Ichigo tried to concentrate the energy inside his body, it made his heart race the first time and his stomach twist the second. He decided against focusing his chakra in his head. He was pretty sure even he couldn't survive if his head exploded.

By midday, Ichigo had only managed to force small changes on his chakra. Part of the problem was his spiritual pressure, if Ichigo had control over his chakra, then his reiatsu shifted and he lost his concentration. He wasn't having much success divorcing his spiritual power from his chakra.

Kurenai and Hanashi ended practice for the morning. Every three days, they had the genin practice through the hottest part of the day as conditioning. But the two jounin instructors wanted their students in good health for the third stage and usually held to Suna's custom of retiring for the hottest part of the day. The four genin usually ate lunch together at their hostel while the jounin disappeared for their own business.

"But you are doing really well," said Hanabi over a lunch of rice, thinly-sliced lamb, and fried vegetables.

"Oh?" asked Ichigo pushing his food around his plate. He had never eaten so much eggplant in his life. Dinner was usually more interesting and the six of them found a restaurant at least twice a week. "How can you tell?"

Hanabi smirked. "My medical restriction ended. So I've been keeping an eye on you."

Hoseki's eyes widened. "I forgot that you weren't allowed to use your byakugan during the second exam. And you guys found all those teams anyway. That was so cool."

"Well, if we hadn't beaten so many teams, maybe your other teammates could have passed," said Konohamaru.

Hoseki sighed around a mouthful of tea. His spiky brown hair seemed to droop. "Maybe. We started out with a black set and got a red set on the second day. But then we were jumped by a team from Iwa right before the sandstorm hit. We were really lucky to find another team in the middle of that, even if they only had one black set."

"How did you pick who got to compete?" asked Ichigo.

"Rock, paper, scissors, of course," said Hoseki.

Ichigo blinked in surprise. "Really? You left it up to chance?"

The other three stared at him for a long moment then Konohamaru sighed and Hanabi shook her head sadly.

"Hopeless," the two said in unison.

"What?" demanded Ichigo.

"I cheated," said Hoseki. "We're shinobi, remember?"

Kon, who had joined them for lunch even if he wasn't eating anything, promptly burst into laughter. The other genin chuckled, even Hanabi cracked a smile. Ichigo just sighed and squashed Kon's head. He really wasn't cut out for this ninja-stuff.

After lunch, the genin parted ways to spend their free time as they wished. Most Suna residents slept or confined themselves to indoor activities. Ichigo, who had slept poorly in the night prompting his early-morning meditation session, took a nap. This time he remembered to check for bugs— he found two recording seals planted by Kurenai for his training and one presumably planted by a Suna-shinobi—and scorpions—which made him glad he was wearing straw sandals and not sneakers.

During afternoon practice, Ichigo was stuck doing the same exercises. After another few hours of failure, Ichigo sighed in disgust and took a break. He looked at the other Leaf-nin. Hoseki and Konohamaru were sparring against Hanabi while Kurenai and Hanashi observed. Kurenai caught his eye and gave him a tiny wave before returning her attention to the match.

Kon had brought a book to read while Ichigo practiced. After the C-Rank turned A-Rank, the modsoul had stuck to Ichigo like glue. He had even protested leaving Ichigo's side for the first two stages of the Exam, until Kurenai explained how closely the contestants were monitored. Ichigo hadn't felt particularly well-monitored during the second part, but he supposed there had to be some jounin out there with them. Still, Kon took his duties as Ichigo's back-up very seriously now that his substitute badge was left behind on Earth.

"What are you reading?" asked Ichigo.

"It's a history of Uzushiogakure," said Kon. "Yuzu packed it for you in case you had some free time."

"Isn't that a little serious for you?" asked Ichigo.

The lion shrugged. "It's all about ninja, so it's almost like a manga. And it's got some weird stuff in here too."

"Weird stuff?" asked Ichigo. "Like what?"

Kon flipped a few pages. The book was closer to a school primer than a serious historical document and the modsoul stopped on a glossy photo of the former hidden village. White buildings with red roofs formed a strikingly beautiful setting. It was profoundly different from the ruins Ichigo and his sisters had landed in when the dimension-crossing seal dumped them in the Elemental Countries.

"See, it says here that Uzu was built on the spot because of its dangerous position, but then it doesn't say anything else," explained Kon.

"It was on an island," said Ichigo. "Maybe they were threatened by hurricanes. Naruto said that seals can contain everything that isn't alive for extended periods. A trapped storm could do some damage."

"Maybe," said Kon. "But there's a map in here too, even if it's kind of old. And there are other islands between Uzu and the ocean."

"That is sort of strange," said Ichigo. "But I guess there isn't anyone around to ask."

"Hokage-sama's been to Uzushiogakure," suggested Kon. "Maybe she would know?"

Ichigo ran a hand threw his hair. "She would have been pretty young then, and a foreign shinobi too. If it's not in their own books, they probably wouldn't have told her. It's not like it matters now. No one lives there anymore."

"I guess not," said Kon.

Ichigo quirked a brow. "Why are you so interested anyway? Are you turning into a researcher? Growing up after all these years?"

"Shut-up!" shouted Kon. "I have to do something. It's not like you guys have a TV anymore. And all the radio-plays are confusing!"

"So you've been forced to read," said Ichigo. "How tragic."

"Shut-up!" repeated Kon. "Aren't you supposed to be practicing, Ichi-nin?"

Ichigo sighed. "Yeah, but I can't seem to mold my chakra without my spiritual pressure getting in the way."

"Why don't you just suppress your reiatsu too?" asked Kon. "You can learn to move them separately later."

"I suppose," said Ichigo.

Ichigo had worked for almost a year to learn how to completely suppress his reiatsu. Once he managed, he thought he would have a better time going unnoticed by the Spirit World, and he was right. Unfortunately, even the most spiritually-numb human noticed when someone lacked spiritual power altogether. At least half of his classmates and most of his professors had thought he was some sort of super-complex robot his second year at university. It was even harder to learn to emit just enough spiritual power to pass as a living human but not attract Hollows. Ichigo imagined Kurenai's chakra-control exercise had a similar goal.

"It's not like they'll know you're manipulating your spiritual power too," said Kon. "You're the only one here sensitive to that sort of thing."

"It's worth a try," said Ichigo eying the setting sun. Control over his power had always been his biggest weakness, but to go a whole day without any progress whatsoever was insulting.

Ichigo resettled into lotus position and generated more chakra. This time instead of ignoring his reiatsu, he pulled it in along with the molded chakra. It took a little more effort to deliberately control both kinds of energy and he had completely suppressed his spiritual power before he realized it.

There was an alarmed shriek from Hanabi, and Kurenai shouted his name. Ichigo snapped his eyes open and found the other five Leaf-nin staring at him. Kurenai and Hanashi had even gone so far as to draw their kunai.

"What?" he demanded jumping to his feet. "What is it?"

Ichigo looked up, but there wasn't anything above him. He stretched his reiatsu as far as it would go. There were his teammates and the other Konoha shinobi. Those were their watchers from Suna-ANBU. He could feel the foreign jounin scattered around the various training grounds and, less distinctly, their genin-trainees. That was the kazekage and all of his power tucked away in his office. There weren't any threats closer-by, and he didn't think those strange fake-shinobi could hide from sight.

Ichigo looked back to the other shinobi, but they hadn't quite relaxed but were staring at him in confusion.

"What?" he asked again.

"You were gone!" blurted Konohamaru. "One moment you were there and the next… Nothing!"

Ichigo felt the tension drop out of his shoulders and exchanged a quick look with Kon. So much for the shinobi not being sensitive to reiatsu.

"You all noticed?" he asked.

"Kind of hard not to, the way you've been flailing your chakra around all afternoon," said Hanashi wryly.

"It was like you had died!" gasped Hoseki.

Ichigo scratched his head and looked away. If he had died just now, with them shouting his name like that, well, it would have meant the destruction of a large part of Suna, maybe the whole village if the kazekage wasn't as strong as Ichigo expected. He could control and direct his Hollowification process these days, but under stress his instincts flared to the forefront usually producing a lot of damage as a result.

"I'm fine," he said.

"But what did you do?" asked Kurenai.

She moved closer to perform a more thorough visual inspection while the others returned to training. Ichigo tolerated it with poor grace.

"I was having trouble with that exercise and accidentally suppressed my spiritual pressure along with my chakra," he explained.

Kurenai frowned at him. With her red eyes, the expression was more threatening than usual. "Suppressing your reiatsu…hmm. But why would you that make you disappear like that?"

"All living bodies produce spiritual energy, which manifests as spiritual pressure," said Ichigo. Technically, it was all souls living or dead, but Ichigo wasn't prepared to start explaining that right now. "A body with no spiritual pressure is just an empty shell."

Kurenai's gaze shifted to Kon. "Is that why your doll is so life-like? Because it's animated with spiritual energy?"

"Sort of?" said Ichigo. Kon was a fake soul. But he didn't want to explain that either.

"Well, if you have such mastery of Yin chakra, then it's no wonder you are doing so well with your genjutsu," said Kurenai.

Ichigo winced slightly. Yin chakra and reiryoku both meant spiritual energy, but he had quickly determined they were only related and not the same thing.

Kurenai continued. "You'll have to keep working. That technique you used will be useful for hiding but not for going unnoticed."

"I figured," said Ichigo. "Even Hoseki noticed, and I haven't even fought him yet."

"Oh?" asked Kurenai. "Does that matter?"

Ichigo blinked. "Uh, yeah. Every time you fight someone, your reiatsu clashes against theirs. If you survive, your spirit pressure grows, especially if you challenge a stronger opponent. I figure that's why jounin have so much."

"Really? How interesting," said Kurenai. "And you can recognize the spiritual pressure of people you fight?"

"I can," said Ichigo. "I don't know about other people."

"I guess there's only one thing for it," said Kurenai. "You'll need to fight Hoseki. And Hanashi too."

"What? Right now?" asked Ichigo.

Kurenai settled a hand on his shoulder and pulled him gently in the direction of the other shinobi. "You've been doing the same thing all day. Repetitive action dulls the wits. You can start again tomorrow. And once your control has improved…" She trailed off.

Ichigo eyed her warily. "And once my control has improved?"

"Then you can start learning to mimic the chakra signature of a civilian or a partly trained warrior or, given your reserves, possibly a chunin or jounin," said Kurenai. "And while you're doing that, you can work on a genjutsu that can fool the byakugan. They're hard to do, but completely possible."

"What? There's no way I can learn all of that before the third stage!" protested Ichigo.

Kurenai stared at him. "What? Of course not, that's in the long term. We already agreed that you didn't need any of this training to pass the Exams. This is for after."

"But after, Konohamaru and Hanabi will be chunin," said Ichigo. "We won't be a team anymore."

Kurenai smiled at him. "No, you're right. But we'll still be comrades. And it's not like you'll stop learning once the Exams are over. Life is a test, Ichigo. For a shinobi to live, he must adapt. Unless, you think you've reached your limit."

Ichigo couldn't back down from a challenge like that. It wasn't his way. He was just surprised Kurenai knew him that well. He hadn't been particularly friendly with his team until recently.

Instead of voicing that opinion, he smirked and said, "I think I could go a little further."

Kurenai's eyes glowed in the sunlight. Ichigo knew that was a genjutsu, but it still looked awesome and more than a little terrifying.

"Excellent," she said. "And it will be fun to have someone to teach my tricks to. No one on my last team specialized in genjutsu."

"Your last team?" asked Ichigo.

Kurenai faced softened into fond recollection. "My first genin team. They were organized into a tracking team, so I mostly taught them how to break genjutsu. They're Naruto's year-mates, so you might have met some of them. Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and you've met Hinata."

"You were Hyuuga-san's jounin instructor?" asked Ichigo. Now that he thought about it, he could vaguely recall Hanabi mentioning something to that effect on their first day of training together.

"I was," confirmed Kurenai. "You know, Hinata's mother died when she was quite young. And she didn't get along with the rest of her family for a long time. We had all sorts of time for girl-talk. We still do. We've even talked about you."

Ichigo felt his face grow hot. "Me? Why?" He hoped he didn't sound too ridiculous. Kon's snickering wasn't helpful.

"I could tell you," said Kurenai. "But I think I'll save it as a reward for passing the chunin exams."

Ichigo's heart dropped. Didn't Kurenai know he was intending to remain a genin? Hadn't Tsunade told her that? Or was this some cruel twist to lure him into accepting a promotion? It wasn't fair. He was still a beginner at this "looking underneath the underneath" stuff. Kon's snickers transformed into boisterous laughter.

"Oo, your face," squealed the modsoul.

"Dammit, Kon! It's not funny!"

-0-0-0-0-0-

Kankuro rolled his shoulders and stepped into the arena. Gaara was making time with the other kages, Temari and Baki were running security, and he, the laid-back, handsome, middle-child, was proctoring the third stage of the exam. His trusty puppet Crow was strapped to his back, ready to intervene if the situation got out of hand—and with shinobi, even baby ones, the situation always got out of hand.

Suna's stadium had a standard set up. There was one large rock roughly three meters tall and a meter and a half at the base; a handful of pebbles tumbled in one corner; a scrawny, dead tree in another; and a shallow ditch rounding out the four cardinal directions. The audience was shaded by large cloth awnings, specially designed for the arena, while the center field was bare of cover. Kankuro, born and raised in Suna as a shinobi, barely noticed the heat even if his full puppeteer face-paint and hood.

Fifteen genin stood in a line in the center of the arena. Kankuro studied the bunch with a jaundiced eye. They had a good mix this year, even if Konoha was over-represented.

"I am Kankuro of the Sand. I will be the proctor for the third exam. The purpose of this tournament is to demonstrate your readiness to become chunin. It is possible that the person who wins will not advance to chunin while the person who loses their first match earns a promotion. However, it's better to win because that gives you a greater opportunity to show off your skills.

"That being said, there are no limits to the techniques you can use in this tournament. The match ends whenever I declare one fighter unable to continue. You will stop when I say stop. And you will not begin until I say go. Understood?"

The genin nodded. Kankuro was relieved to see none of them looked too bloodthirsty. It wasn't wrong for a shinobi to want to kill his or her opponent, but it wasn't good form to have a death in front of all the spectators either. Most of the audience was civilian, and they only wanted a bit of excitement—not the horror of a dead teenager in the sand.

"The first match is between Kurosaki Ichigo of Konohagakure and Chaku of Iwagakure," he said pitching his voice louder. "The rest of you, wait your turn over there."

Thirteen genin dashed to sectioned-off area for the contestants. Two remained in the center. The redhead with the bokken was the Leaf-nin. The skinny runt with too many knives was the Rock-shinobi. They squared off in front of Kankuro.

"You may begin," he said.

Chaku threw nearly a dozen kunai Kurosaki, who knocked most of them away with his bokken. The rest were doomed to miss. Kankuro was mildly surprised. Iwa shinobi were known for their Earth Release jutsu while Konoha-nin weren't particularly well-known for kenjutsu.

"Oiy, you're what, fourteen?" asked Kurosaki suddenly.

Chaku tossed a handful of shuriken his way, which Kurosaki dodged without a problem.

"Yeah, what about it, old man?" demanded Chaku.

Kankuro stomped down on his rage. Kurosaki was younger than Kankuro. The puppeteer wasn't an old man yet.

"And you started the Academy when you were six?" continued Kurosaki.

"Five," said Chaku. "Only Leaf shinobi a whole extra year to start training."

This time Chaku threw a mixed selection of senbon and kunai. Kurosaki dodged some and knocked away others. The one he knocked away were all attached to wires.

"So we spent the same amount of time training," said Kurosaki. He paused and added, "Sort of."

"Maybe you can compare notes after you finish your fight," suggested Kankuro. He had thirteen more of these to sit through today.

Kurosaki seemed to ignore him entirely. Sighing deeply and rubbing his head instead. "No matter how I look at it, this must have been how Byakuya and Renji felt during our first fight. How annoying."

"You're the annoying one," yelled Chaku. "Take me seriously."

Kurosaki's gaze fell on Chaku. The younger genin gulped. Kankuro had a feeling he was going to regret saying that in a minute or two.

"You're right. I apologize. I'll take you seriously from now on," said Kurosaki.

"Good!" said Chaku. He fanned kunai in each hand and took a heavy step forward.

There was the Earth Release. Spike rose from the ground. Kurosaki jumped out of the way. Simultaneously, Chaku threw all of his kunai, most of them attached to strings. In the air, Kurosaki couldn't dodge or block them all.

Kurosaki was unperturbed by this turn of events. His right hand still holding his bokken; he half-formed Tiger then Snake with his left. The first and last seals of kawarimi, Kankuro realized, as the two genin unexpectedly switched places.

Chaku wasn't the same size as Kurosaki, so most of the kunai missed him. The real problem was, the sudden switch in position had tangled him up in his own wires. Chaku couldn't control his own descent and was going to land, at least partially, on the bed of spikes he had created. Kurosaki charged forward, at a surprisingly fast clip given he wasn't using shunshin, and hit Chaku hard across the back with his bokken.

Chaku, already stunned by the sudden lack of air in his lungs, hit the ground and failed to rise. As a bonus, Kurosaki's strike caused the other boy to crash into ordinary dirt rather than the spikes. Kankuro counted to ten in his head, which was a stupid rule because in a real battle even three seconds meant death, and called the match.

"Chaku is unable to battle. Kurosaki Ichigo advances to the next round," declared Kankuro. "Get out of here, kid."

Kurosaki raised a skeptical brow but obediently sheathed his bokken and left the arena to thunderous applause. Kankuro signaled the medical team to come for Chaku.

"Next up, Pendei of Kirigakure versus Lumi Tsuko of Getsugakure," he called when the field was clear.

Two kunoichi dropped into the stadium and made their way over. The Mist-nin was fairly tall for a girl and wearing one of those re-breathers favored by members of that village. The Moon kunoichi was a pale slip of thing with silver hair and eyes.

"Begin!"

This fight went by quickly too. The girls appeared evenly matched until the Mist-nin attempted a water bullet. The Getsu-nin blazed through a list of signs and produced the self-titled "Ultimate Defense Shield!" which was a shining silvery crescent with the arms pointing at the attacking shinobi. It was a kekkei genkai if Kankuro had ever seen one. The Kiri-nin's attack hit the lower half of the moon, traveled up the arch, and shot back at its creator at even faster speed. Too surprised to move, the kunoichi went down hard.

"Pendei is unable to battle. Lumi Tsuko advances to the next round," said Kankuro quickly. He saw Tsuko slip a kunai back into her weapons pouch, and mentally gave her points for follow up.

"Next, Mitokado Hoseki of Konohagakure and Hada of Sunagakure," said Kankuro.

He was excited for this match though he couldn't let any of that show on his face. Hada was a talented young kunoichi. Her jounin-instructor was a friend of Kankuro's and expected great things from her in the future. Mitokado was one of Leaf's more promising genin and the grandson of the Third Hokage's teammate, Mitokado Homura.

Unfortunately, from Kankuro's point of view, this match lasted almost half an hour and ended with Hada's defeat. This was her first attempt at the Chunin Exams, and while she definitely wouldn't earn a promotion this time, Kankuro expected success the next time she attempted the Exams.

Next was another lightning fast round between Rupi of Waterfall and Ansei of Mist. The Kiri-nin had his opponent down and bleeding in five minutes. Kankuro was barely able to call the match before Ansei stabbed the unfortunate Taki-nin.

"Hyuuga Hanabi of Konohagakure versus Zastav of Kumogakure," announced Kankuro.

The Kumo genin was a large, dark-skinned teen with the beginnings of pale goatee on his chin. He was taller than the much older Hanabi, who was wearing the typical white and grays of her Clan. Unusually, she was wearing a pair of sport-sunglasses. The first concession to the sun Kankuro had seen from any of the genin today. He certainly hadn't expected it from a Hyuuga.

"Begin," said Kankuro.

Zastav launched half a dozen at Hanabi. She knocked them away with a series of palm strikes but loosed a tiny shriek when she touched the last one. It was connected to an electrified wire. She jumped away landing in a sandier section of the arena. Zastav smirked and ran after her. He tossed several more kunai and shuriken in her direction—all of them electrified.

"Kaiten!" Hanabi started the signature revolving technique of her clan. It rebuffed the kunai and threw up a cloud of sand, a logical reason to wear sunglasses. She ended the technique quickly given there was no follow up attack by Zastav.

Kankuro was a bit surprised about that and looked to the Kumo-nin. Zastav was on the ground unmoving. A closer look showed dozens of senbon sticking out of his more sensitive pressure points. Hanabi must have hit him while performing Kaiten, which was very impressive.

"Zastav is unable to continue. Hyuuga Hanabi advances to the next round!"

Hanabi nodded seriously, trying to hide a pleased grin, and left the arena. A medical team came for Zastav. Kankuro didn't find the idea of removing all those needles pleasant.

"Umuzi of Kusagakure has a bye this round. Our next match is Yoh of Kirigakure and Ithna of Suna."

This match was much better for Kankuro's pride. Yoh was obviously a ninjutsu user, but he didn't have the stamina to keep producing water in Suna's dry climate. Ithna, a fan-wielder like Temari, avoided his first few attacks and cut him down with ease.

"Finally, for our last match of this round we have Kuriku of Otogakure and Sarutobi Konohamaru of, no surprise, Konohagakure."

Konohamaru scowled at Kankuro, who smirked. The brat had grown a lot since their first meeting, but the Suna-nin was pretty sure he could still toss the kid around if he needed to. Weirdly, Konohamaru had finally changed his look. Instead of wearing his scarf around his neck, he was wearing it wrapped around his head.

The Oto-nin, Kuriku, was one of the ones who took the name Sound seriously. The new village was still divided on whether or not to focus on the techniques traditionally used by shinobi in that area or the harmonic jutsu provided by Orochimaru and his research. This kid had tiny bells hanging from every major joint. At the moment, he was keeping them from ringing by judicious use of chakra.

"Begin!" declared Kankuro.

Konohamaru, as ninjutsu specialist, opened with a fireball. Kuriku cartwheeled out of the way, bells ringing like mad. Konohamaru followed up with a series of rising earth pillars, which Kuriku dodged, and a wind trumpet, which sent the other genin flying. Kuriku resolved his tumble into a somersault and recovered easily. The genin, whose face had been blank up to this point, looked puzzled.

"You should have succumb to my Illusion Bell Technique by now," he said.

Kankuro remembered that from his first Chunin Exam. The kunoichi from Sound had used it against Shikamaru with great effect, even if she had eventually lost. Konohamaru was a pretty sharp kid, but he was no Shikamaru. He definitely should have been frozen by now.

Konohamaru just grinned and tossed another fireball at him. Kuriku dodged and finally made an attack of his own, tossing kunai at the Leaf-nin. Konohamaru dodged with a flashy back-flip of his own, but Kankuro could see him forming signs the instant his hands left Kuriku's field of vision. Konohamaru touched the ground, activating his jutsu, and Kuriku's next step dropped him into a pit of quicksand up to his neck. Konohamaru landed in a ready position, but Kuriku couldn't seem to get out of the trap.

"I resign," said the Sound-nin regretfully.

"Kuriku is unable to continue," said Kankuro. "Konohamaru advances to the next round."

Kankuro quickly performed an earth jutsu of his own and got the kid out. Kuriku patted himself a few times but quickly gave up on getting rid of the dust. Instead he looked at Konohamaru.

"Why didn't my technique work on you?" he asked.

Konohamaru stared. "What?" he said loudly. "Hold on. I can't hear what you're saying."

The Leaf-genin unwrapped his scarf to reveal a white strip of cloth with the word "Hear" covering his ears. He pulled it off and looked at the other genin.

"What was that?" asked Konohamaru.

"I think you answered my question," mumbled Kuriku.

"Kid, where did you get that? Baki took all of those up," said Kankuro. Unless the team had held onto an extra set of bindings after the first task.

"Ichigo thought they were interesting, so he's been trying to make some in his off hours. They're kido-based not fuinjutsu, but they work pretty well," said Konohamaru. "He let me borrow this one, since I was fighting an Oto-nin."

Kankuro just sighed. Typical Leaf stuff. As expected from the Number One Noisy Unpredictable Hidden Village. He wasn't sure what "kido" was though. Demon Arts? Some kind of kinjutsu? Temari would have to find out on her next diplomatic trip to her boyfriend.

"Get out of here. I've got matches to run," said Kankuro.

"You're the one who asked!" protested Konohamaru indignantly.

He and Kuriku both moved though, and that was enough for Kankuro. "We will now begin the Second Elimination Round. First up, Kurosaki Ichigo of Konohagakure and Lumi Tsuko of Getsugakure."

The two genin appeared for their bout. Kankuro spared a moment to study the redheaded genin. Now that he thought about it, this was the one that had given Temari a funny answer during the first stage. Lumi was also studying Kurosaki, looking a little nervous. Her expression cleared as they faced each other.

"Begin," said Kankuro.

Neither one moved. Kankuro checked for a genjutsu, but no, they really were just staring at each other. After an embarrassingly long minute, Kurosaki reluctantly settled into a kenjutsu stance. Based on the way he shifted his bokken, it looked like he was an iaido-style fighter. Lumi raised her hands into the opening sign.

Kurosaki moved. Lumi flashed her hands like a woman possessed. The shield flickered into life with the arms of the crescent circling toward the Moon genin this time. Kurosaki's bokken shattered the construct like glass.

The strike hit the kunoichi across the chest before she could think to move, and she went flying. She hit the ground halfway across the arena and didn't stop tumbling until she hit the far wall. Kurosaki sheathed his bokken in one fluid motion and straightened.

"Shit," said Kurosaki looking vaguely guilty. "The shield looked stronger than that."

Kankuro rolled his eyes. Only Konoha-nin would feel bad about beating an opponent. He had to agree with Kurosaki though. What was the point of a shield if one hit with a wooden sword could shatter it?

Lumi wasn't moving. Kankuro didn't think she had the sort of build to easily recover from a hit like that and decided to call the match.

"Lumi Tsuko is unable to continue. Kurosaki Ichigo advances," he declared. "Look don't worry about it, kid. The medic-nin will fix her right up."

Kurosaki's face was stormy, but he nodded and moved back to the waiting area. Kankuro just rolled his eyes again.

"Next, Mitokado Hoseki of Konohagakure versus Ansei of Kirigakure," announced Kankuro.

How was it that Konoha had four genin in the third stage and all of them had moved to the second round? Kurosaki and Mitokado were the weaker of the genin too. Hanabi would beat the genin from Kusa. There was no doubt there. And as much as Kankuro hated to admit it, Ithna, the remaining candidate from Sand, didn't stand much of a chance of winning against Konohamaru either. If this Ansei brat didn't win, then the next two rounds would just be Leaf genin showing off.

To Kankuro's surprise, Ansei did win and viciously too. It was the longest fight in the tournament yet, and Mitokado held his own for a most of the match making excellent use of fire jutsu and exploding tags. In the end, a frustrated Ansei pulled out water-whips, clearly a technique he had wanted to hold back for later, and sliced Mitokado near to pieces. Kankuro had to intervene with Crow to pull him off. The Leaf-genin was rushed off to the medics for blood transfusions.

The following battles were anti-climactic after that. Hanabi thoroughly defeated Umuzi, the kusa genin, by distracting him with clones and shadow shuriken while sneaking up behind him to knock him out. Konohamaru, as predicted, defeated Ithna after a fairly solid demonstration of both their skills. The fan-wielder might have had a chance, if Konohamaru had used more typical Fire jutsu, but the Leaf-nin was too clever for that and relied mostly on Earth Release jutsu. (Konohamaru's early attempts at using Wind-natured jutsu were shut down, so as least Ithna demonstrated his skill there.)

After the last bout, Kankuro checked the position of the sun. The tournament had started at ten to accommodate some of their late-rising, foreign guests. Now it was well-past noon and into the real heat of the day. None of the other Hidden Villages had this problem, except when Kumogakure hosted the winter exam, but they would have to postpone the last two rounds until later for the comfort of the civilian nobility that had come to watch.

Kankuro raised his hand. "We will now take a break in preparation for the final two rounds. The tournament will resume in two hours."

The crowd slowly cleared the stadium. Kankuro gave a little sigh and retreated into the closest access tunnel underneath the stands. A few minutes later, he heard the deliberate step of feet and the kazekage appeared next to him.

"Hey, Gaara."

"Hello, Kankuro," said Gaara warmly. He raised his hand and the disturbed ground of the arena shuddered then settled smoothly into place.

"How's the view from the box-seats?" asked Kankuro.

"Fine," said Gaara.

Kankuro sighed slightly. Gaara still saw little point in making conversation. "So what's the verdict so far?"

"Hada, of course, will have to repeat the exams at another date. Ithna did very well against the Mist-nin and Konohamaru, even if he ultimately lost, he will be receiving a promotion," said Gaara.

"What about the kids from Leaf?" asked Kankuro.

"Tsunade was going to promote Hanabi and Konohamaru this time even if they lost in the first round," said Gaara. "Mitokado Hoseki also did quite well and demonstrated. He will likely receive a promotion."

"And he lost too," said Kankuro. "Messily."

"Tsunade was not pleased. She sent Sakura to attend him almost immediately and went herself just now. Mei says the boy has a reason for his behavior, even if she feels it is stupid," explained Gaara.

"So, really, we just want to see how Ansei and Kurosaki's match turns out," said Kankuro. "The rest is just show."

"It is all just show," said Gaara. "We only host these Exams to attract clients and intimidate the other villages. In-village exams are much more efficient."

"I guess you're right," said Kankuro.

"I am interested in the result of that bout though," said Gaara.

"Really?" asked Kankuro. "Kurosaki seems pretty strong, but he hasn't demonstrated a lot of skills. Just some regular kendo and that one Body-Replacement Technique."

"I saw him doing something curious one morning," said Gaara. "And Naruto is very excited about his fights."

"Really?" asked Kankuro in surprise. "But isn't Konohamaru the one he's been training for so long?"

"For a certain value of training," agreed Gaara. "I wasn't able to make out the reason why, and he disappeared before I could ask."

"Oh, a mystery," said Kankuro smirking. "These last rounds shouldn't take too long. Kurosaki's been a one-hit wonder so far, and Hanabi and Konohamaru will try to finish up quickly with another bout ahead of them."

"I agree," said Gaara solemnly. "Would you like to each lunch?"

"You're not eating with the other kages?" asked Kankuro.

Gaara gave him a flat look.

"Ah, they're all bitching about their candidates losing and the tournament unjustly favoring Konoha as usual," said Kankuro.

Kankuro hadn't really paid attention to that sort of thing before Gaara became kazekage, but Konoha always had at least one genin promoted to chunin every exam cycle no matter the location and even if that was the one promotion that exam. It was weird, and became only more obvious as the other villages attempted to sabotage Hanabi and Konohamaru, who were always the strongest candidates in whichever Exam they entered. Tsunade just said that Konohagakure produced superior shinobi—and almost started the fifth shinobi war right then and there—but she might have been onto something.

"Lunch sounds good," said Kankuro.

Lunch was good. Kankuro ate with Gaara, and Temari joined them later. She was in a mood alternately praising and lamenting Ithna's matches, even though she hadn't trained him personally, and spending the rest of the time glaring at Gaara, which a decade ago would have been a killable offence around the unstable jinchuriki. (She was upset because Gaara's restrictions on foreign shinobi entering the city meant that Shikamaru hadn't been able to come. Kankuro was fairly certain he wouldn't have come anyway given his recent promotion to Jounin Commander, but no one was going to point that out, not even Gaara. His sand shield wouldn't stop a verbal lashing, and he'd run out of air before Temari ran out of breath.) The reminder of how Gaara used to be made Kankuro grateful for how things were now.

It was hard to recapture that peaceful feeling when he was back on the sandy arena floor listening to the brat from Mist make a fool of himself.

He was dressed flamboyantly for a kiri-genin. Instead of a shirt, he had bandages wrapped around his entire torso, which Kankuro imagined was a huge time-suck in the mornings, and his dark gray pants were gathered at the ankle. His dark brown hair was cropped close to his head and his hitai-ate was strapped around his neck. He lacked the standard rebreather, and instead wore swimming-goggles that were a bright neon-green. Of course, compared to Kurosaki's bright orange hair, dark blue Chinese-style tunic, and red scarf and sash, Ansei's outfit was practically tame.

Kurosaki's irritated scowl still managed to be more threatening than Ansei's vicious grin, and the genin seemed to know it.

"Are you going to avenge your little buddy from Leaf?" hissed Ansei.

Kurosaki didn't look very impressed with his opponent either. "Avenge? Tsunade-sama and Sakura-sensei are both here. He's already fine. Just sleeping it off."

Suna-medics were nothing to sneeze at either, but Kankuro restrained himself from contributing to the ridiculous conversation. Ansei didn't seem too pleased by Kurosaki's answer.

"I'm going to do the same thing to you and then move on to your teammates," said Ansei.

Kurosaki's scowl deepened. "Well, Hoseki did ask me to beat you, and I don't like the idea of you fighting Hanabi or Konohamaru, so you're going to have to change your plans."

"We'll see about that," said Ansei grinning madly.

"After I say go," said Kankuro sternly. Neither genin said a word or looked away from each other. Kankuro flicked a hand at them. "Begin."

Kurosaki reached for his bokken. Ansei immediately put some distance between them and formed Tiger with his hands. Kankuro went ahead and jumped to the edge of the stands, not wanting to be caught up in either genin's attacks. He was impressed by the thickness of the mist Ansei produced with the Hidden Mist's signature technique. Maintaining that sort of water release was difficult in Suna's conditions.

The field surrounding the two genin was completely covered in fog, obscuring Kankuro's vision. He could track their chakra without much problem. Kurosaki had retreated slightly from the mist when it first approached but hadn't moved very much since. Ansei, in a move not usually seen from Kiri-nin, had used Earth Release: Hiding like a Mole to tunnel to Kurosaki's position.

The redheaded genin seemed oblivious to his opponent's approach, but even Kankuro heard Ansei shout "Water Release: Water Whip!" as he surged out of the ground. Kurosaki shot backwards out of the mist entirely, but there was something odd about the way he held himself.

Kurosaki held up his left hand, the palm angled downward toward the ground. "Byakurai."

Lightning shot out of Kurosaki's hand hitting the mist-dampened ground and illuminating the entire area. Ansei shrieked once and the entire concealing fog disappeared. The singed genin collapsed to ground with a dull thud and didn't rise. There was a roar from the stadium.

"Ansei is unable to continue," said Kankuro jumping carefully onto the arena floor. Kurosaki's attack had super-heated the ground and the top layer of sand was now a sheet of dirty glass. "Kurosaki Ichigo advances to the next round."

"Cool," said Kurosaki. "Hey, did you see where my arm landed?"

Kankuro blinked and looked at the genin again. He had missed it from his place on the rim of the arena, but Kurosaki's right arm was missing just below the elbow.

"Are you okay?" asked Kankuro automatically. He shook his head. That was a stupid question. "Just stay there and wait for the medical team."

Kurosaki rolled his eyes. "Do I look worried to you? I'm not even bleeding. I just need my arm and my bokken."

Kankuro blinked again. Kurosaki really wasn't bleeding. His behavior might be attributed to shock, but somehow the puppeteer didn't think so. He looked over the formerly hidden field. There was a lump that might have been an arm before it got hit by lightning. Kankuro pointed.

"Hey, thanks," said Kurosaki.

He walked calmly past the medical team racing for Ansei. It seems they hadn't noticed the missing arm yet either. Kurosaki certainly didn't appear to be in any distress.

The redheaded genin frowned at the lump and poked at it with his remaining hand. Kurosaki stood up, took a step back, and raised his leg for an axe-kick bringing his foot down hard next to the lump. Glass shattered for several feet in every direction. Kurosaki wound his scarf from his neck, carefully, if awkwardly, wrapped the bokken and arm together, tucked the bundle under his remaining arm, and strode toward the access tunnel. It was all very efficient.

"Hey, kid," called Kankuro. "You should get a new arm before you leave Suna. We have the best puppets in the world."

"Thanks," said Kurosaki over his shoulder. "But I think I'll manage."

That got the medical team's attention. The lead medic-nin looked up and realized what had happened to Kurosaki.

"Hey, what are you doing?" he demanded.

Kurosaki nodded his head at the tunnel. "Medical is this way, right? I need to get there before Sakura-sensei does, or she'll be even more upset with me."

That said, he disappeared under the stands leaving the medics gaping and Kankuro fighting not to laugh. He'd worked with Sakura before. Upset was probably an understatement.

An ANBU dropped next Kankuro and handed him a message before disappearing again.

Kankuro cleared his throat. "We will have a fifteen minute break before continuing the Exam."

Kurosaki might not be able to continue after all. He was missing an arm, even if he had won this round without it. Konohamaru and Hanabi's match might be the last one of the day. It would build suspense for the audience at any rate.

The medical team finally cleared Ansei off the field. They were heading to medical too. Kankuro was relieved not to be stationed there right now. Sakura would be furious.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Sakura, in addition to being a trained jounin, was one of the greatest medic-nin alive. The minute she saw Ichigo burst out of the mist minus an arm, she took off for the medical station. Concern for her patient kept the rage at bay, at least until she hit the infirmary, where a wide-eyed nurse pointed at a private room, and Sakura stormed in to see Ichigo frowning contemplatively at his arm laid out on a table and otherwise not the least bit bothered.

"What is wrong with you, you moron!" she shrieked. "Don't you have some impenetrable kekkei genkai? Why did you let this happen?"

There went the last of her professional demeanor. She wasn't supposed to blame patients for their injuries until they were healed.

"Blut vene can be torn with enough force," said Ichigo. "But I wasn't using it then. I mean, I am now to stop the bleeding…"

Sakura stalked over to the table and grabbed his arm to study the wound. It was a clean cut—to be expected from a water-based tool—and really wasn't bleed. The flesh looked healthy, though it had only been a few minutes since the wound was made, not enough time for infection to set in. Sakura felt sure it could be cauterized easily. They could even lay-in the necessary leads for a prosthetic while they were in Suna.

"Hey, Sakura-sensei, can you fix my arm?" asked Ichigo.

Sakura shook her head sadly. "Maybe if there was still something connected but there's no jutsu for re-growing limbs."

Ichigo carefully shook loose his stump and pointed at the detached arm. "No, I mean this one."

Sakura stared at him in confusion.

"I was just going to reattach it with my regeneration ability," said Ichigo. "But I accidentally fried it with byakurai, so the ends don't match up anymore. I can't use a kido to fix it since it's a physical body."

Sakura blinked out of her shock and took a look at the arm, which was disturbingly still holding on to the bokken. It was pretty well destroyed. There had been wet sand all around the limb and bits of glass were fused into the skin. Some were tinted red with blood. This part of Ichigo had bled as appropriate. She raised a bit of healing chakra and touched the arm.

"I'm sorry, Ichigo," she said. "It's completely dead. Chakra needs a living vessel to work correctly."

"Damn," said Ichigo. "I'll have to grow a new one."

Sakura's mouth dropped open. "Grow a new one?"

Ichigo frowned at her slightly. "Yeah? Hollow Regeneration isn't exactly healing technique. It's all about re-growing destroyed tissue. It's just a pain to use in my real body."

"You can grow a new arm," said Sakura faintly. She formed a fist. "Idiot! Why didn't you say that before?"

Ichigo dodged her punch. "Sorry, Sakura-sensei, I didn't mean to worry you. But you probably shouldn't hit me while I'm still using blut vene."

Sakura struggled to control her temper. She had just about managed it when Naruto burst into the room. "Ichigo! Are you okay? What about your arm? I'm so sorry!"

"Be quiet! This is an infirmary!" roared Sakura.

She slapped Naruto into the wall leaving a faint body imprint. Ichigo just stared at them like they were a puzzle to be solved. Sakura coughed into her fist.

"Ichigo says he can fix his arm," said Sakura.

"Really?" asked Naruto sitting up. "You're going to be okay?"

Ichigo nodded. "Yeah. I'll be fine. Sorry for worrying you."

"You should be!" shouted Naruto. "But, I'm glad you'll be alright." He sighed. "Will you be able to finish the tournament? They've postponed Hanabi and Konohamaru's match until we know if you can continue or not."

Ichigo looked away. "You know, regenerating my arm will take a lot of energy, so I probably shouldn't. Unless that Ansei guy will fight them instead?"

Sakura narrowed her eyes in suspicion, but Naruto was shaking his head. "No, Kankuro said he lost, and he lost. We'll just say you forfeit. Hanabi and Konohamaru's fight will be the final match instead. It's the one everyone wants to see anyway."

"That's fine then," said Ichigo.

"Hold it!" said Sakura raising an accusatory finger. "Did you get injured on purpose so you wouldn't have to fight Hanabi or Konohamaru?"

Ichigo flushed guiltily. Naruto gasped.

"Why would you do that?" he demanded.

Ichigo shrugged. "I'm not a big fan of this whole tournament-fight thing. And I didn't want to hurt their chances of promotion if I had to fight one of them."

"Both of them have more than demonstrated their capability to be chunin," said Sakura. "You didn't have to worry on that regard. And were you really so confident that you'd defeat your opponent? You've sparred against each other, but that isn't the same thing as going all out."

Ichigo gave her a flat look. Sakura considered what she knew of Ichigo's abilities. If he was really trying, yes, he could probably beat any chunin and maybe some jounin.

"You still could have fought with them in the final round," said Sakura.

"And what? Insulted them by holding back?" asked Ichigo.

Naruto sighed. He reached over and patted Ichigo on the head. "You're new to this Will of Fire stuff, so you get a pass this time. But everyone from Konoha was really upset to know you got hurt. Hanabi and Konohamaru will be too once they realized you did it to make them look good. So I know you were trying, but don't do it again."

Ichigo's indignant expression shifted to remorse. "Got it, hokage-sama-in-training."

Naruto beamed. Sakura smiled softly, but she had lot of exposure to Naruto and managed to recover quickly.

"Now that that's cleared up," said Sakura. She pointed to the severed limb. "What were you thinking? Letting that kid cut off your arm? Surely you didn't need that much of a wound to be convincing."

Ichigo grimaced. "I didn't expect him to go after my arm like that."

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.

"He was right under me, so I expected him to go after my head or my stomach," said Ichigo.

"That's even worse!" yelled Sakura and Naruto together.

"I wouldn't have let him hit my head," said Ichigo looking annoyed. "And if it was a gut wound, no one would've know how severe it was."

Sakura groaned and covered her eyes.

"So that whole last bit was what? Something you made up on the spot?" she heard Naruto ask.

"I decided to use lightning when he used that mist jutsu," said Ichigo. "Maybe as a little payback for cutting Hoseki all over. But I had intended to use the lightning jutsu Kurenai-sensei taught me last week. I just didn't know the seals well enough to do it with only one arm, so I used a kido instead."

"That was a kido?" asked Sakura curiously. "That lightning attack you used? It did a lot of damage."

"Hado number four," confirmed Ichigo. "And yeah, it wasn't concentrated or anything, but I might have put a bit more power into it than I really wanted."

"Oh?" asked Naruto. "Why was that?"

Ichigo gave him a look. "Where I'm from, if an enemy disarms you, literally, it's usually followed by an attack to the stomach or the head."

"Oh, right," said Naruto.

"It's nice to know you have some sense of self-preservation," said Sakura drily. "Now, show me how you intend to regrow your arm."

"Are you going to do that now?" asked Naruto. "Can I watch?"

Ichigo shrugged. "I don't mind. But, don't you have to tell someone I decided to withdraw?"

Naruto's eyes widened and looked for a clock. "You're right. Don't wait for me. I'm glad you're safe. Bye!"

Naruto ran from the room as suddenly as he had arrived. Sakura shook her head at her teammate's antics and turned to her patient.

"You didn't say that just to get him to leave because it'll hurt, did you?" she asked.

Kurosaki raised a brow. "No, I learned my lesson. And it shouldn't hurt anyway, maybe feel weird when the nerves grow back, but not hurt. I just need to eat something to get some extra nutrients."

Sakura started rummaging through her pockets. "I've got some protein bars here." She peered at Ichigo and unwrapped them before handing them over. "I have some soldier pills too, but they'll taste pretty bad."

"I'll eat anything," said Ichigo.

Sakura handed over a supply of her homemade soldier pills. They were weaker than the average pill in terms of restoring chakra but were better at restoring the body. Ichigo ate three of the ten she had on hand and the four protein bars she had given him then held up his damaged arm.

The air in the room grew heavy and dark. Sakura watched in fascination as his bones regrew starting with the marrow at the severed ends of the radius and ulna. The cartilage and ligaments between his bones restored themselves at the same time. Following that, the blood vessels bloomed into existence all at once, including the tiny vessels that fed into the skin, creating a weird sort of haze in the shape of his arms. Next were the muscles and tendons which spawned around the blood vessels and bones in fibrous lines. Finally there was very thin layer of fat which sheathed the muscles, then his skin, and then his fingernails, which grew in last of all and looked a bit like claws.

"Amazing," said Sakura.

"Thanks," said Ichigo his voice sounding odd. He wiggled his fingers and rotated his wrist even as he reached for the rest of the soldier pills with his left hand.

Sakura tore her eyes away from his brand new forearm and glanced at his face. She recoiled in surprise. His eyes were gold-on-black, the dojutsu-like manifestation of his powers, and his face was very nearly white.

"Are you alright, Ichigo?" she asked.

"Just hungry," said Ichigo. His voice still possessed that odd-sounding quality.

"Let me check in the main room," said Sakura. "They may have some more food in there. You just stay there."

"Okay," said Ichigo faintly.

Sakura got another handful of ration bars from the infirmary staff and a cup of water. When she reentered the little room, she saw Ichigo eyeing the arm on the table.

"Please don't tell me you were thinking of eating your own arm," said Sakura.

"The thought had occurred," said Ichigo sounding serious. "But there's too much glass."

Sakura tore open one of the protein bars and practically shoved it into Ichigo's mouth. She dumped the rest of them in his lap, set down the water, and moved to the other side of the table.

Ichigo smirked as he finished chewing. "I was just wondering what to do with it," he said. But he didn't waste any time moving on to the next protein bar either.

Sakura let that comment rest while Ichigo ate. He didn't seem to have any trouble with the motor control on his regrown hand, and his color was returning to his face. After a few more minutes of eating, his eyes faded back to normal. First the irises faded from gold to amber to brown then the inky-black pulled away into the corners of his eyes. There was nothing to indicate he had been seriously injured other than the arm on the table. Ichigo drained the cup of water and sighed.

"Thanks," he said sounding normal again.

"Well, we medic-nin do have some uses," she said. "Now what was that about your arm?"

"The way you acted," said Ichigo. "Regenerating a limb isn't a normal skill around here, right?"

Sakura shook her head. "No, there was a clan that could grow extra bones and fight with them. But their last member died more than a decade ago. Is it a common skill in your world?"

"Well, most Hollows have the ability to one degree or another," said Ichigo. "And Orihime can do it with her power. Kurotsuchi, well, he's a freak. And Yhwach… Anyway, I thought it might gain a lot of attention if people knew I could regrow limbs, and people might think it's a kekkei genkai and go after Karin and Yuzu, even though they can't do it."

"We'll just say you reattached your limb using an unfamiliar technique," said Sakura. "We'll tell Tsunade-shishou what happened, of course. And I can tell Naruto the cover story before he has time to blab."

"Thanks," said Ichigo then he smiled at her.

Sakura stared. It wasn't a tiny grin either. It was a full-blown, eyes-shut, teeth-bared, sunshine-bright smile. He even had the same stupid sideways tilt to mouth Naruto used when he was really pleased with something. She knew the smile wasn't really for her but a combination of gratitude for the food and relief at his sisters' safety, but still it was amazing.

"You're welcome," she said.

Just like that the expression was gone, and Ichigo was back to scowling at his arm. "Maybe I could burn it?"

"You need a really hot fire to get rid of it completely," said Sakura.

Ichigo nodded to himself. "That's what I thought. Would you like to see another kido?"

"Hell yeah," said Sakura.

Ichigo reached over and delicately pried the bokken from his former hand's grip and slid into its normal position at his hip. The wooden sword, she noticed, seemed completely unharmed. He also slid the scarf out from under the arm, shook it out, and tucked it out of sight. Then he stepped back, gestured for her to do the same, and raised his right palm.

"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Hado Thirty-One: Red Fire Cannon!"

Red light burst from Ichigo's hand and struck the severed limb. The table shuddered and hand was consumed by fire leaving nothing behind but a scorch mark.

"What was that chant?" asked Sakura. She brushed her fingers over the table, but there wasn't any heat.

"It's kind of like hand-signs," said Ichigo. "The chant helps focus and shape the energy, but skilled user don't need it. I used it to make the flame hotter."

"You can change a detail like that?" asked Sakura.

Ichigo shrugged. "Red Fire Cannon is one of the more versatile kido. You can change the size of the blast or the amount of heat it produces. I've seen shinigami destroy walls with it, but my friend Renji could also use it as a light."

"You can change jutsu like that too sometimes," said Sakura. She looked at him. "You said, this was hado thirty one, but the one you used in your fight was number four. Which one is stronger?"

"The higher the number the more complicated the spell," said Ichigo. "But it really depends on the user. Byakuya almost killed me with a concentrated White Lightning once. It's why I was worried about using it on Ansei."

Sakura rolled her eyes. Of course he was worried about the kid who took off his arm. "He's in the next room and not the morgue, so he's probably fine. What about you? Do you really need to rest now that you've regrown your arm?"

Ichigo blushed. "Ah, no, I could use some more to eat, but it's not urgent or anything. Unless, you think the match is over?"

"We'd have heard the applause if it was," said Sakura.

"Then I'd kind of like to watch," admitted Ichigo.

"I should make you stay here and think about what you've done," scolded Sakura. "But I'll take you to the rest of the Konoha shinobi before I head back to the kages' box. They can keep an eye on you."

"Okay, thanks," said Ichigo.

Sakura led him out of the infirmary and into the stands. Several shinobi from Konoha had a vested interest in this Exam, but she was looking for one group in particular. Fortunately, Hinata had told her where they were sitting during the break, and Sakura could find them easily.

Hinata and her father had come to support Hanabi and see her finally earn her promotion. Sitting with them was Kurenai and Yamanaka Hanashi, Hoseki's jounin sensei, and also Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, both of whom had come in support of Hoseki but mostly in honor of the third hokage's memory. They were all sitting in one long row with the elders on one side and the Hyuugas on the other as some sort of statement of political equalization. All that mattered to Sakura was that Hinata on the end.

"Hinata-chan, I know you're busy watching, but I need you to keep an eye on this one for me," said Sakura gaining the attention of the entire group.

Oddly enough, neither the Hyuugas nor Kurenai looked terribly surprised to see Ichigo back on his feet or with his arm. Then again, they had probably been able to check on him with byakugan if they really wanted to. Sakura manhandled Ichigo, who had balked for some unknowable reason, into the empty seat next to Hinata. The Hyuuga heiress blushed.

"Of course, Sakura-san," said Hinata. "Kurosaki-san, I'm glad you're okay. We were all very concerned."

"Ah, thank you," said Ichigo faintly. "I didn't mean to worry you. How is the fight going?"

Sakura smirked and caught Kurenai's eye. The older kunoichi tilted her head at the pair and winked. Feeling vindicated, Sakura turned to head back to her own seat with Tsunade and Naruto. She could pass on the secret about Ichigo's arm and some hot gossip. Whatever the outcome of the current match, this Chunin Exam was a success all across the board.