Over the course of her life, Sakura had gained more experience with the saying 'Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it' than she ever could have wanted, but never had it seemed more appropriate than now. As she stared down at the small mountain of scrolls, books, and loose papers that occupied a good portion of the surface of the table in front of her, she sighed heavily, wondering how long it would take her to go through all of them.

Technically, she supposed, Jiraiya was making good on his offer to teach her by giving her all of this reading material, but she had hoped for something a bit more hands-on. She couldn't deny, though, that the part of her that had never outgrown her love for books of all kinds was positively salivating at the sight of so many rare texts, and she also felt a bit—more than a bit, if she were to be honest with herself—flattered by what the old sannin had said to her before leaving her alone.

'You've got a good grasp on the basics of forming and activating seals, so there isn't all that much I can teach you,' he had told her, for once seeming every bit the wise, powerful ninja she knew lay under his usual demeanor. 'The true power of fuuinjutsu lies in versatility, creativity, and adaptation, which aren't things that can be taught. It's a lot like genjutsu, actually, except easier to study by yourself, since you don't need another person to practice techniques with.'

Despite his praise, part of Sakura wondered whether it had just been a polite way of telling her that he wasn't sure what to do with her, ever since she had succeeded in being able to maintain up to four separate chakra constructs even with Naruto deliberately trying to disrupt her concentration. It didn't really matter, she supposed, since she wouldn't be participating in the chuunin exam combat trials like Naruto and Hinata would, but she still felt a bit left out. Then again, given that Naruto had progressed from balloons to thick-shelled rubber balls in his own training, she was somewhat glad that her ears would be spared the torment of having to listen to him.

And it's not like Jiraiya-sama won't be teaching me anything at all, she told herself. He had said he would be checking up on her progress, both to see what she was learning as well as to ensure she wasn't delving into anything too dangerous—not that Sakura was sure what might be included in that, when he had expressly encouraged her to look for information on possession and exorcism, the binding of spirits into physical vessels, and even summoning. Compared to those, everything else she could think of seemed fairly tame, but she supposed he knew much more about that sort of thing than she did.

Several hours later, Sakura was convinced that, if anything, Jiraiya had been understating the potential dangers. So far, she had only glanced through most of the texts in the pile, but already she had begun to mentally sort them into 'useful,' 'useless but interesting,' and 'should be locked in a steel vault and thrown into the ocean' categories, with an alarmingly high percentage falling under the latter classification. One scroll had even discussed the possibility of reanimating the dead, and she had had to consciously restrain herself from incinerating the loathsome thing.

Still, she had also found a fair number of manuscripts which were more along the lines of what she was interested in—though, to her dismay, one of the most informative-looking ones happened to also be one of the most disturbing. On the most basic level, it dealt with the separation and dissociation of spiritual entities that had somehow become entwined, but then it took a turn for the horrific and presented a seal which, when activated, would forcibly and permanently sever the attachment between a person's spirit and his or her body. Unlike the necromantic scroll, it wasn't something that could be classified as kinjutsu, but it still made her skin crawl.

Of course, I've been neck-deep—or perhaps stomach-deep—in studying kinjutsu since I was eight years old, more or less, Sakura thought to herself, feeling a wry smile appear on her lips. When she thought about it that way, she became more grateful than ever for the care with which the Hokage had taught her—as well as, now that she had seen the kinds of things Orochimaru had done, the fact that he had agreed to teach her at all. In a way, though, the ease with which she was able to interpret and understand some of the darker techniques frightened her, though it was also a testament to how much he, and now Jiraiya as well, trusted her.

Spotting a much safer-appearing book than the ones she had been examining earlier, Sakura pushed her doubts and concerns to the back of her mind. After listening to her theories on the possible usefulness of resonance between identical or similar seals, Jiraiya had challenged her to develop a seal of her own that would take advantage of her idea, and she was eager to prove her point to him. Unfortunately, all of the concepts she had come up with thus far dealt with the seal imprisoning the Nine-Tails, and regardless of what anyone else said, she knew she was not yet ready to experiment with that.

But, I could probably adapt the same principles to work with one of the lesser seals, Sakura thought, the first glimmerings of an idea beginning to come to her. She had already worked out what she believed could be a way for a spirit trapped in a seal to be able to interact with the outside world through the medium of another, resonant seal, but given up on it as testing such a thing with the Nine-Tails was not an option for obvious reasons. If Jiraiya agreed to help her, though, she thought she could use one of the abundance of lesser nature spirits as a test subject; most were relatively harmless, some even benevolent, and it wasn't as though what she was planning would hurt them.

Before she talked with him, though, she needed to make sure her design took every possibility into account. This would be the first truly complex seal she had developed all by herself, and she was determined to make it perfect, especially as her success or failure—no, she thought, I won't fail—would reflect on the one who had taught her. It would require a great deal of time and effort, she knew, and she probably wouldn't see much of her friends until she was finished, but she was sure they would understand.

- - -

"No!" Hinata yelled, leaning away from the wobbly, unstable sphere of chakra forming in Naruto's hand. "It's going to—"

Too late, she groaned to herself as she watched the construct tear itself to pieces, releasing a miniature gale that flattened her clothes against her body and whipped her hair into even more of a tangled mess than it was already. She was beginning to grow exceedingly tired of this, but she had promised Naruto she would help him, and she would hardly abandon him over a bit of temporary annoyance. That didn't change the fact that she would be delighted beyond words if he were to suddenly master the technique on his next try, of course; this marked the fifth day since he had succeeded in bursting a rubber ball and Jiraiya told him to move on to using nothing but his own chakra, and he seemed no closer to success now than he had on the first day.

What was truly frustrating for Hinata was that she could see what was going wrong, but she couldn't find a way to describe it to Naruto well enough for him to understand, nor was she sure exactly what he needed to do to fix it. Telling him that the surrounding shell of chakra was being shredded away as the inner part ground against it was all well and good for her, since she knew what something like that looked like, but it was a long process of trial and error for him to attempt to correct the problem without being able to see what he was doing.

Not for the first time, she wondered how the Fourth Hokage had even managed to develop this technique in the first place without the unique advantages the byakugan offered for manipulating raw chakra. Chakra control via hand seals—or even on an instinctual level, as Sakura seemed to have learned to do—wasn't really the same thing at all, which was a major reason why non-Hyuuga had never been able to master the jyuuken and its associated techniques.

"I wish Sakura was here," Naruto sighed, dropping down to sprawl on the grass. "You saw all the weird stuff Ero-Sennin had her doing with her chakra, so I'm sure she could help us figure this out."

Hinata nodded, sighing along with him. Apparently their teammate was working on something for Jiraiya that was even more complicated than what she had been studying before, and for nearly the past two weeks she had been spending close to all of her time in either the Hokage's tower or the library, only coming out to eat and sleep. While Hinata could understand and respect her friend's dedication, that didn't change the fact that she missed Sakura—and not just because she could be helping with their training, either.

"Come on, it's your turn now," Naruto said abruptly, jumping to his feet and brushing off his pants. Grinning at her, he backed away a bit, then began tapping his foot on the ground in mock impatience when she failed to respond immediately.

Thanks, Naruto-kun, Hinata thought, giving him a brief smile before assuming a ready stance. He had a true gift for being able to bring her out of her more introspective moods, and while that could be somewhat annoying at times—she liked to tease him by saying that unlike him, she actually enjoyed thinking—at others, like now, she couldn't be more grateful. Besides, it wasn't as though they would never see Sakura again, and she couldn't deny that she and Naruto both could use all the training time they could get at the moment.

Holding up her hands in front of her, she nodded to Naruto, signaling to him that he could begin. As he reached for something at his belt, she opened her chakra coils, creating paths from her center down her outstretched arms and terminating at her palms, which were beginning to itch with the built-up chakra. She knew it wasn't harmful, but that didn't make it any less comfortable, and she wished Naruto would start soon.

Then he whipped his hand forward, sending a small, round object swiftly towards her. As she had practiced so many times, she lifted her hand to intercept it, palm outwards, and allowed the gathered chakra to stream out of her now-opened tenketsu. With an actinic blue-white flash of light, the object—practice shuriken, she identified automatically—ricocheted from her hand and buried itself in the ground at her feet.

"Nice start," Naruto said, his grin beginning to take on a challenging edge. "Time for things to get interesting."

With no other warning than that, he began to throw what seemed like an endless stream of shuriken at Hinata, at first relatively slowly, then faster and harder. At some point, she realized he had switched from the practice weapons to real, sharpened ones, and she couldn't help but wince at the thought of what would happen if she missed one. Despite that, though, she found herself able to keep up with him, even when he started throwing two at once, and slowly she felt her mouth stretching in a grin to match his own.

Only when several seconds passed without any more bladed projectiles hurtling towards her did Hinata realize Naruto had stopped for some reason. Lowering her hands, she blinked several times in an attempt to clear the lingering spots from her vision, then gasped as she saw the number of shuriken, kunai, and senbon littering the ground in a fan-shaped area for nearly a meter in front of her. A light sheen of perspiration covered her skin, and she felt a hot, tingling sensation running down her arms that warned her she had come a bit too close to overextending herself.

"Wow, that was great, Hinata-chan!" Naruto exclaimed. "I actually ran out of stuff to throw that time. Now…um, could you help me pick everything up again?" A sheepish smile crossed his face as he crouched down and began to gather the various throwing weapons lying on the ground.

Shaking her head, Hinata knelt down beside him, unable to keep from laughing at his disappointed expression. "What's the matter, upset you didn't get to draw blood today?" she teased. "I, for one, am perfectly happy I won't be adding another bandage to my collection."

"No, it's just that most of these are Mother's," he replied mournfully, prying at a half-buried kunai in an attempt to lever it out of the ground. "She made me promise to keep them in good shape, which means I'm going to have to clean them all now."

Hinata giggled, causing Naruto to look at her as though she had somehow betrayed him. "Stop that," she said, sticking her tongue out at him. "You know I'll help you clean everything up, especially since it's sort of my fault they got dirty. I'm still not sure why—oh!

"Come here," she ordered, standing up and pulling on his hand until he followed suit. He was looking at her oddly, clearly puzzled by her sudden change in attitude from playful to serious, but she was too excited by her sudden realization to answer his unspoken question.

"Now, try the Rasengan again, but this time, concentrate on making the outer shell…loose, I guess," she said, trailing off slightly as she narrowed her eyes in frustration. She knew exactly what she wanted him to try to do, but she couldn't think of the right way to describe it.

"Loose?" Naruto repeated after her, sounding even more puzzled than before.

Hinata nodded, still trying to think of a better way to explain what she wanted him to try. "Maybe not quite loose," she mused, nibbling absently on her lower lip. "Um…when you do it now, are you trying to keep it all still, or are you letting it move?"

"Keeping it still, of course," he replied. "If I didn't, wouldn't it fly out of my hand?" He glowered at said hand, as though blaming it for his failures to date.

"I don't think so," Hinata said, shaking her head. "As long as you can keep putting chakra into it, it'll stay attached to the tenketsu in your hand. At least, that's how…anyways, just try it."

Naruto still didn't look convinced—she couldn't blame him for that, as she knew she wasn't very good at explaining things—but he nodded anyways, adopting a look of intense concentration. Slowly, a misty blue ball of chakra took form in his cupped hand, and Hinata held her breath as it began to separate into two distinct layers. Then she relaxed, nodding as her suspicion was confirmed. As long as Naruto didn't try to force the outer shell to remain static, it continually recreated itself even as it was eroded away by the rapidly-rotating inner core, whereas before he was attempting to keep it intact through sheer power.

"You did it, Naruto-kun! I knew you could!" she said happily, smiling at him as he stared down at the swirling mass of chakra he was holding with a look of near-awe on his face. "Go on, try it out. You know you want to."

Seemingly in a daze, Naruto nodded, then turned to the tall wooden pole Hinata sometimes used for balance practice. He gingerly brushed his hand across its surface, producing a veritable explosion of splinters, which caused Hinata to take a half-step backwards and lift one hand to shield her face. When the dust and flying wood chips finally settled down, the pole bore a gouge several centimeters deep, perfectly matching the contour of the Rasengan itself.

"Wow," Naruto breathed, staring at the amount of damage even that minor experiment had caused. Then he looked down at his now-empty hand, and finally over at Hinata. A grin bigger than any she had ever seen on him before spread over his face, and he lunged at her, hugging her so hard she heard herself squeak. Stepping back, he looked at his hand once again before shaking his head in disbelief.

"It felt weird, trying to hold onto something without really holding it," he said. "You're right, though, it didn't ever seem like it was going to slip away or anything. Is that the same kind of thing you do when you make those chakra shields?"

Despite her happiness, Hinata winced; she had hoped he wouldn't make that connection, especially since her 'chakra shields' were really just a more focused and directed form of the Kaiten. She had discovered while training with her father that she did not yet possess either the strength or the necessary level of full-body chakra control to safely use the Kaiten in its classic form, but she had managed to take the basic concept and apply it on a more limited scale. Unfortunately, that meant that it qualified as a Hyuuga clan secret—and while she herself had no problem sharing it with Naruto, she doubted her father would be as understanding if he were ever to find out she had said anything.

"It's…similar," she responded after a moment, and though she was sure Naruto had picked up on her hesitation, he thankfully said nothing.

"I think that's enough training for today. A little more practice over the next few days, and you'll both be ready for the tournament."

"Jiraiya-sama!" Hinata gasped, turning around to see the white-haired sannin casually leaning on the railing of the nearby bridge. She knew he couldn't have been watching them for too long, as she had only shut off her byakugan after Naruto successfully managed to form the Rasengan, but she really didn't like it when people were able to sneak up on her like that.

Naruto waved excitedly, then pointed to the damaged wooden pole. "Ero-Sennin, did you see?" he asked. "I finally figured it out! Well, with Hinata-chan's help, of course."

As expected, Jiraiya grumbled, "Stop calling me that, brat," but Hinata noticed it sounded even more like a mere formality than usual today. In fact, if she wasn't mistaken, the old man was looking at Naruto with something close to respect.

"Not bad," he finally said, after walking over and closely inspecting the damage done to the pole. Then, in a more serious tone, he added, "Your father would be proud of you, very much so."

For a moment, Hinata honestly thought Naruto might start crying at those words. In some ways, she knew, he was far more driven by the image of the father he had never known than she herself was by her own, living father, and now to hear something like what Jiraiya had just said…well, she knew how she would feel in his place. Moving quietly, she stepped over to stand next to him, placing one hand on his arm in a gesture of silent support.

"You too, Hyuuga-hime," Jiraiya said, instantly returning to his usual demeanor as he turned to regard her. "You're a credit to your family's skills, and as an added bonus, you still manage to act like an actual human being most of the time. Now go on, go do something fun—but not too fun; your other teammate might get jealous, and you don't want that."

Throwing her a wink, which made her curse her fair complexion as she felt herself blush involuntarily, the sannin vanished into thin air as suddenly as he had arrived. Hinata had a vague sort of feeling that she ought to be offended by what he had said—or at least implied—about her family, but at the moment, she was too excited by her friend's accomplishment to care.

"Come on," she said, tugging on Naruto's arm so that he would follow her, as he still appeared to be in a semi-dazed state of mind. "Let's go find Sakura and tell her. I'm sure she won't mind being interrupted for something like this."

- - -

Today has been an absolutely perfect day, Sakura decided as she walked out of the small restaurant, waving to Naruto and Hinata as they turned down the cross-street that led to the Hyuuga compound.

First, she had finally succeeded in figuring out the last few details of the seal—seals, to be totally accurate—on which she had been working for the past two weeks, and then she found out her friends were making equally great progress in their own training. She still found it somewhat hard to believe that Naruto had learned to use the famed Rasengan so quickly, but maybe, she thought, she shouldn't be. He really did deserve his title of 'genius ninja,' and with Hinata there to help him learn to mold his chakra properly, perhaps his rapid success wasn't so surprising after all. Also, she had no doubt whatsoever that the fact that his father had been the one to invent the technique had motivated him to try even harder than he usually did.

Hinata, too, had apparently managed to accomplish something impressive, but both she and Naruto had been annoyingly close-mouthed about what exactly that was. All they had said was that not knowing would give Sakura a good incentive to pry herself away from her books and come watch the tournament.

Like I'd even think about not going, she thought, somewhat indignantly, even though she knew they had only been teasing her. After having missed the preliminary round at the forest arena, there was no way she would pass up the chance to cheer on her friends. At least they wouldn't have to fight each other in the first round the way Naruto and Ino had had to, though she wasn't sure whether Hinata saw that as a blessing or a curse, given the identity of her first opponent. Sakura just hoped her friend wouldn't talk herself into giving up right away.

Just then, she spotted a flash of blonde hair in the sparse early-evening crowd ahead of her and sped up a bit. She had been neglecting Ino recently in her fervor to finish the seal design she had been working on, and she winced in anticipation of the verbal lashing she would no doubt be receiving shortly. Still, she smiled happily to herself at the thought of being able to spend some time with her best friend, perhaps over dessert. After the large dinner Naruto and Hinata had insisted she eat, she wasn't exactly hungry, but she certainly wouldn't pass up a chance at some sweet dumplings or mochi-wrapped ice cream.

"Ino-chan, wait!" she called out, tapping her friend on the shoulder. When the other girl turned around, though, revealing someone who most definitely was not Ino, she felt her cheeks redden at the mistake. In her defense, she thought, Temari did bear a fairly close resemblance to Ino from behind, especially as her hair was down for the first time Sakura had seen since meeting her.

"Is there something you need, Sakura-san?" Temari asked, raising one blonde eyebrow in an expression of puzzlement.

"Oh, no," Sakura said, still faintly blushing. "I thought you were somebody else…sorry to bother you, Temari-san." Giving the other girl an apologetic smile, she turned to leave, but halted when she heard her name called in an almost hesitant-sounding voice.

"Sakura-san? Do you have time to talk?"

Sakura had hoped to spend a little more time checking over her work, since she would be showing it to Jiraiya and the Hokage tomorrow, but she nodded. Whatever Temari wanted to talk with her about probably wouldn't take too long, and it would be awfully rude to refuse. Besides, she had hoped to be able to spend some time with the Sand kunoichi anyways, even if that had fallen by the wayside after she started working in earnest on her fuuinjutsu studies.

"Sure," she said, smiling slightly at Temari. "There's a café near here that has good desserts, if you want to go there." Though the street wasn't all that busy at the moment, she was becoming increasingly conscious of the unfriendly stares people were starting to give her. Hopefully the café, which she went to from time to time with Ino and Hinata, wouldn't be very crowded, as she really didn't feel like having her day spoiled when it had been going so well up until then.

Temari nodded, and, giving a tiny sigh of relief, Sakura began heading towards the café; curiously, the other girl remained silent the entire time, causing Sakura to wonder just what she wanted to ask her. The trip didn't take long, though, and she was able to restrain her curiosity until they were inside and sitting down at one of the more secluded tables.

After the waitress had taken their orders and left, Sakura looked over at her companion and asked, "What did—"

"Not yet," Temari interrupted in an almost pleading tone. That was certainly not an attitude Sakura associated with her, given both her own interactions with the older girl as well as Naruto's account of the way she had fought in the elimination match after the second part of the chuunin exam. Now she was even more curious than ever, and she had to force herself to sit patiently and wait.

Fortunately, she didn't have to wait long, as Temari seemed to come to some kind of decision. Looking over at Sakura, she asked, her voice so quiet it was almost a whisper, "What is it like, having something…inside of you?"

What kind of weird question is that? Sakura wondered, looking askance at the older girl. Like Shino-kun's bugs? She remembered Ino telling her about how it had felt when possessing the quiet boy, but somehow, she doubted that was what Temari meant. Besides, it wasn't like Sakura really knew anything about that.

"I…I don't understand what you mean," she said hesitantly, staring down at the table in an attempt to hide her sudden blush as another possibility came to her, followed immediately by the urge to slap herself for thinking things like that. Perhaps Hinata was right, and Jiraiya's perverted tendencies really were contagious.

Temari laughed quietly, but it wasn't a happy sound. "No, of course you don't," she said, her voice turning hard and cynical. "Can't let the dirty little secret get out, after all. I guess I was hoping for too much, but I just—I can't ask him, but I still want to…never mind. Sorry for wasting your time, Haruno-san."

She stood up from the table, ignoring the curious glance the waitress gave her from across the room, and tossed several coins down on the table—enough to pay several times over for the pastry she had ordered, Sakura noticed. Then the only possible interpretation of the Sand girl's hesitant, convoluted statements struck her, and she felt her heart freeze in her chest.

"No, wait!" she exclaimed, reaching out and grabbing Temari's hand, just as she turned to leave. For a moment, she was afraid the other girl would keep walking, but then, to Sakura's unutterable sense of relief, she sat back down.

How does she know? was the only thing running through Sakura's mind just then. How had a foreign ninja learned what even her closest friends had been unable to figure out—and what would Temari do with that information? She didn't seem to want to use it to hurt Sakura, but in that case, why had she confronted her at all?

"I know you probably won't believe me," Temari said, after what seemed like an eternity of silence, "but I just want to ask you some questions. I don't understand how you can be so different. I've been watching, and people treat you the same way they do him—maybe even worse—but you don't act like him at all. Why is that?"

Like the last piece of a puzzle fitting into place, the older girl's references to 'him' sparked a sudden understanding in Sakura's mind, and she felt her mouth drop open. "Your brother," she murmured. "The one who found you that day I ran into you…Gaara, you said his name was. He's like me, isn't he?"

Thankfully, the waitress chose that moment to bring their orders over to their table, giving Sakura some time to attempt to figure out what was going on. Now that she thought about it, she realized she wasn't surprised in the slightest that the strange, frightening boy with the red hair and cold green eyes was the vessel for a demon, but that didn't answer the question of what Temari wanted with her. Then she thought of what the other girl had asked at first, as well as what she had said afterwards.

Maybe she just wants to understand a little about her brother, Sakura decided. She seemed kind of scared of him, so I guess she doesn't want to ask him anything.

For some reason, that saddened her, and she made up her mind then to answer as many of the older girl's questions as she could, though she doubted she would be able to be very helpful. Just from what little she had seen—and now heard—she had a feeling that Gaara's seal was fairly different from her own. The first thing she had to do, though, was impress on Temari the importance of never mentioning what she had discovered. She didn't know how the law against speaking about the Nine-Tails might apply to people from outside the village, but she was sure it wouldn't be at all forgiving.

"Listen to me," she said, surprising herself with her own forcefulness. "You can't talk about this with anyone. What you said about a 'dirty little secret' is right, and there are laws against talking about it. Even most of my friends don't know. So just…I'll try to answer your questions, but no more."

Temari nodded, though Sakura's warning seemed to have provoked more curiosity than concern in her. "Okay," she replied, a small smile appearing on her lips for the first time that night. "Anything you can tell me would be good. My brother is…hard to talk to, so there are a lot of things I don't understand."

Somehow, Sakura had a feeling that that was an understatement. "I'm not sure how much help I'll be," she admitted. "The…it is—well, it's sealed very tightly, so it's not even something I'm aware of. Maybe I'd be different if it wasn't there, but I don't really have any way of knowing, since I've had the seal ever since I was a baby. I'm just…me."

Well, except for that time on our mission, she remembered, but there was no way she was going to discuss that with anyone who didn't already know about it, let alone a foreign ninja with whom she was barely acquainted. No matter how nice the other girl seemed or how good her reasons were for wanting to know, there was a limit to what Sakura was willing to tell her.

The disappointed look on Temari's face was almost enough to make her change her mind, though. "I see," she said quietly. "I guess you're not very much like my brother after all. You can't hear what it says to you, or—or anything like that?"

"No," Sakura replied, shaking her head, even as part of her winced a little at the lie. She wondered what Temari had been about to say, then mentally shrugged; likely, it wasn't anything important. More interesting, though—albeit somewhat disturbing—was the implication that the demon inside Gaara actually spoke to him. Even aside from what that might mean about how thoroughly it had been sealed, Sakura could still remember the terror she had felt during the Nine-Tails' talk with her. If the Sand boy had to listen to things like that on a regular basis, she could understand the reasons for his attitude.

Yet another reason to be grateful for the Fourth's skill, she thought, considering some of the more unpleasant aspects of Orochimaru's cursed seal. If the seal on Temari's brother was anything like that, she was somewhat surprised he had even managed to remain sane. Perhaps, after the tournament was over, she could try to talk with him.

"Well, it sounds like I wasted your time after all," Temari said, bowing slightly to Sakura as she stood up. "Thank you for telling me what you could, though…and don't worry, I can understand why you wouldn't want people talking about something like that."

Sakura smiled apologetically at the older girl. "I'm sorry. I wish I could help you more, but it sounds like my seal is very different from your brother's," she said, standing up as well and setting down a small amount of money to cover the dumplings and tea she had eaten.

"Apparently so," Temari sighed, frowning unhappily. "Good night, Sakura-san."

As the blonde girl walked out of the café, though, Sakura couldn't help but feel that she wasn't as disappointed as she appeared to be.

- - -

Very funny, Kakashi thought, mentally rolling his eyes as he pulled out his well-worn copy of the latest volume of Icha-Icha Paradise and settled into one of the more comfortable chairs in the Hokage's inner office to wait. Knowing Jiraiya, the old sannin probably thought making Kakashi wait for him was the height of humor, but how he had gotten the Hokage to go along with it as well was a bit puzzling. Fortunately, Kakashi had a perfectly adequate supply of reading material, so he didn't mind waiting at all.

Just as he was about to get to the good part, though, he heard the office door open, and he sighed to himself as he put his book away. Jiraiya and the Hokage entered together, talking quietly to each other, though they stopped when they noticed his presence.

"Your genin are impressive for their age," Jiraiya said by way of greeting, settling down into another chair while the Hokage made his way over to sit behind his crowded desk. "I expect they'll do well tomorrow—at least, the two who will be competing."

"What about the one who won't be?" Kakashi asked, not bothering to conceal his curiosity. While he had been keeping an eye on his genin when his duties as interim ANBU squad captain allowed, and he was indeed quite impressed with their progress, Sakura had all but vanished from existence for the past several weeks. He had seen her every now and then in passing, but the only thing he knew about what she was doing was that it had something to do with a new—or at least radically modified—style of fuuinjutsu, according to what the Hokage had told him.

Jiraiya chuckled. "That girl has so much potential that it's almost frightening," he said, shaking his head. "She'll never be more than barely competent in a stand-up fight, but I pity the person who tries to attack her if she's had time to prepare. And I'm not sure even she realizes the implications of the work she's been doing recently."

Undoubtedly, that last part had been intended specifically to pique Kakashi's interest, and he had to admit that it had worked. Before he could ask what exactly Jiraiya meant, though, the Hokage pointedly cleared his throat.

"Have you discovered anything unusual about the Kazekage's party?" he asked, bringing Kakashi's attention back to the reason for this meeting.

"Nothing definite," Kakashi replied, shaking his head. "His guards weren't happy about our security arrangements, but that seemed more like wounded pride than anything else."

The Hokage shrugged. "If that turns out to be the case, then we will send them off with our apologies after the tournament," he said. "Until then, they are guests in our territory, and they will abide by our rules."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Kakashi bowed slightly. At a time like this, there wasn't much else to say—and, after meeting the Kazekage, he was beginning to wonder if the Hokage's theory about the Sand being in league with Orochimaru might not be correct after all. It was nothing concrete enough to act upon, but something about the man made him distinctly wary. Hopefully it was only his imagination, but he had learned to trust his instincts, and he resolved to be especially watchful at the tournament tomorrow.

"Good," the Hokage said. He glanced down at his desk for a moment, then frowned as he pulled out a large sheet of paper, which he spread out before motioning for the other two men to come look at it. It was a map of the village, showing the same defense plans Kakashi had seen just that afternoon at the briefing he gave the squads under his command, and he wondered why the Hokage was showing it to him again now. Then he noticed several changes to the squad assignments, causing him to frown as well.

Before he could ask why two of his three squads were being reassigned, the Hokage said, "The gate sentries have reported an unusual number of people entering the village over the past week—much more than we had anticipated.

"Most of the increased traffic is legitimate, of course, but it would be simple to conceal enemy ninja among everyone who has come to watch the tournament, especially the foreign nobles and merchants. With so many people, the sentries are unable to give any of them more than cursory inspections, but this evening they found one man who was attempting to smuggle in weapons among his goods for sale."

Which means increasing security around the spectators is a higher priority than watching the Kazekage, Kakashi thought, understanding the reasoning behind the change now but still not liking it. One ANBU squad would be no match for a ninja as skilled as the Kazekage was reported to be, and Kakashi was sure his two guards were more than competent as well. The only other real option, though, would be to—

"That's why I'll be joining you tomorrow," Jiraiya put in, just as Kakashi came to the same conclusion. He had been wondering why the sannin was present at this meeting, but that explained things quite well. Suddenly, he felt much better about his squad's chances in the event of anything unexpected happening at the tournament.

- - -

Author's Notes: My thanks for all of the reviews for last chapter; I always enjoy reading them, and it's nice to see that people are still interested in the story. As for this chapter, at least one question has been answered now--namely, what was Temari's interest in Sakura? As for why she was able to figure it out in the first place, it seems apparent from canon that she's quite intelligent, and given her exposure to Gaara, it seems reasonable that she would be able to spot the similarities between how they're treated and draw some conclusions from that.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! All comments/questions/etc. are most welcome, of course, though I can't promise I'll answer the questions. Next time, the chuunin exam tournament begins...