Lea POV

I saw the two as soon as they turned the corner. I was leaning against the railing watching with tiny amusement as the hunch sound ninja slammed the fat guy (I still couldn't remember his name) into the wall.

Sasuke and Kakashi finally came out of hiding. As soon as they were in the open, however, Sasuke clutched his neck and stumbled, grabbing unto Kakashi for support. Kakashi held him upright escorting him back around the corner. I hope he was okay...

"And that concludes the preliminaries!" The jonin who sounded like he had a serious lung problem was speaking. "Will the winners please come down."

I rested my hand Machaera's hilt. I headed down the stairs behind the others. Naruto was looking around and when he spotted me, he stopped and waited for me to catch up.

"Where's Sasuke?" he asked me, still looking around.

I shrugged. "How would I know?" I may be dense about certain things but I was observant. I could tell that no one knew what was wrong with Sasuke nor where he was. And I could tell that Kakashi didn't want me to tell.

"Hmm ... I wonder where they took him."

We reached the base of the stairs and began falling into a line. "Instead of wondering where Sasuke is, why don't you wonder what's going to happen after this?"

The jonin up front coughed and held up a paper. He began calling out names. "Neji Hyuuga, Shikamaru Nara, Shino Aburame, Temari, Gaara and Kankuro of Sunugakure's Sand Sibling, Dosu Kinata, Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki and ... Lea. Congratulations. You are all moving on to the finals."

Naruto was grinning from ear to ear and I couldn't help but smile along too. Who knew you could get so much pleasure from accomplishing something like this?

"We did it, Lea-chan!" Naruto shouted, turning to me. He fist pumped the air. I grinned at his happiness.

"Was it any surprise?" I said.

"When we get back we should eat some Ichiraku ramen!"

"You're paying of course," I told him.

His face fell. He popped out his little frog purse and rummage through it. "But, Lea-chan ... I don't think I have enough money."

I cocked my head to the side. "But I won too. You're not going to treat a teammate for moving on to the finals?"

He sent me a wavy smile and shook his hands in protest. "No, no! Of course not! Ramen's on me!"

"Did I just hear that ramen's on you?" The fat guy popped out of nowhere, his hand elbow deep in a bag of chips. Before we could answer he called over to the others. "Hey guys! Naruto's going to treat everyone to ramen tonight!"

They surrounded us immediately.

"Hey! I said I was treating Lea tonight!" Naruto shouted.

"And beside, you didn't move on to the finals," I told the fat guy His face fell. Shikamaru came up and patted him on the back.

"Don't worry, Choji. I'll treat you to some beef." His face immediately lit back up.

I frowned slightly at him. "Don't you think you should be eating a little less? Maybe a salad?"

Everyone froze. Even Choji. His hand stopped and silence ensued.

"Why do you say that?" he asked, his face growing dark.

"Because you're fa-" My words were muffled when Naruto clasped his hand over my mouth.

"Don't say that word," he whispered in my ear, sounding terrified.

"Why?" I tried whispering back.

"He'll go crazy. Just don't mention his weight."

... Really? That was it?

I rolled my eyes at Naruto and took his hand off my mouth. As soon as it was off I said, "Because you're fat."

"I AM NOT FAT! I"M CHUBBY!" Choji began raging. Before he could swell up, I went up to him and slapped him across the cheek. He stopped, shocked.

"You're fat, Choji. So what? I'm as skinny as a twig. Just be you." I smiled at him and soon he smiled back.

"You're right, Lea. I'll be me."

A collected sigh of relief went up in the air. I turned back to Naruto and he was staring at me, respect shining in his eyes.

What a douche.

Everyone was exiting the temple. As soon as I turned I felt someone's gaze on me. I looked around and saw Gaara staring at me. His eyes were completely devoid of any emotion. I stared back at him and then, after a moment, headed over to him.

"You're Gaara, right?" I asked him. Gaara's frowned, as if a headache was coming on. Slowly, bit by bit, his forehead creased even more. What was wrong with him?

He grabbed his head, looking at me through wild eyes. Okay, this was getting scary.

"Are you okay?" I asked him, a little concerned. I tried touching him but he jerked back.

"No! Stay back!" I drew back immediately.

He looked torn. He held out a wobbly hand, trying to touch me but then drew it back immediately. It was as if someone was fighting with him.

"You ..." he muttered, clutching his head as if he were in pain. "You ... I need ... you..." He held out his hand again and this time a bit of sand floated around me.

"Gaara!" Temari and Kankuro came running towards us.

"What did you do to him?!" Kankuro demanded.

"I didn't do anything," I said.

Temari went up into Gaara's face and clapped and snapped. She looked like she was avoiding touching him. "Gaara! Gaara, snap out of it! She's not here! Lea's not here!" She turned to me, fear in her eyes. "Lea, go!"

I got out of there as quickly as I could.

//

I awoke for the first time since coming here in a good mood. I knew it was because I had no set time for waking up anymore. We were in the training session for the finals which means I could wake up any time I wanted. Not that I was going to waste my time in bed. I knew I still had to train.

I got out of bed and shook the grogginess away. I made an instant ramen. I can't cook so this was all I could rely on. I sat at my table, prepared to have a nice peaceful morning.

"You mind sharing some of that?"

I jumped out of my chair and almost spilled the hot ramen soup all over me.

"What the hell?!" I turned to see Shikamaru sitting on my window frame. "What the hell are you doing here so early?"

"It's almost noon."

"Which is freaking early in Lea's time zone! Now what the hell do you want?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Women ..." he muttered.

"What was that?"

"Never mind what I said. Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?"

"Your training." He groaned. "Don't they ever tell you anything?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Shikamaru?"

"The Third asked me to take you to where you will be training. Don't ask me why. He doesn't usually do this with anyone."

"Then why me?"

"If I cared I would have asked."

I bit my lip. "Fair enough. Just let me change first."

He nodded and rested his head against the window. I got up, forgetting the ramen and went into the adjoining bathroom. There I washed my face and changed into my clothes.

"I'm ready," I said, coming back out.

We headed out into the woods. I wasn't much of a talker and I didn't think Shikamaru was either. Neither did I think that either of us cared. But as we walked we started talking and I was laughing hysterically by the time we reached. Who knew Shikamaru could be so funny?

"We're here," he said. We came out into a clearing and saw The Third Hokage and a stranger. I still felt jittery whenever I was around the Hokage. Being near such an important figure can be kind of nerve-wracking.

"Thank you, Shikamaru," the Hokage said. "You are dismissed. I hope your training for the finals are fruitful."

Shikamaru nodded then turned to me. "See ya," he said and I waved as he walked off.

I faced the Hokage and the stranger.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Hello, Lea. How have you been doing? Are you enjoying yourself here in Konoha?"

Somehow the pleasantries only made me even more on edge. "Sure," I replied, looking from him to the stranger warily. The stranger was dressed in a white and black robe. He had on a wide hat that covered his face, but his white hair fell over his shoulders. Judging by his wrinkly hands clasped before him, he was old.

The Third Hokage chuckled and smiled. "Yes, that's right. I was told you can be a little closed off. Sorry about that."

I didn't answer him but my eyes narrowed just the slightest bit.

He gestured to the old man. "This is an old friend of mine. We go way back."

I nodded, looking him up and down. "I can see that."

"His name is Horo and he'll be training you for the finals." Horo lifted the hat from his head and I could finally see his face.

"You better be as good as I was told," he said. My head drew back, shocked at his rudeness.

"I'm sorry," I said turning to the Hokage. "Why am I getting this old man to help me fight?"

"You're new here. You might not know much about the village so I thought I could help out." He held a hand up to stop my next words. "Don't try to refuse. It's a gift from me to you. I won't take no for answer."

"How about hell no?"

"This one's feisty Hiruzen. I haven't heard anyone talk to you like that in a long time." Horo chuckled.

"Maybe a bit too feisty," The Third Hokage replied wryly. "Don't make me turn this into an order, Lea."

I sighed and crossed my arms. I knew I couldn't argue.

"Good." The Hokage clapped his hand and grinned at us. "I've got work to do and so do you too. Hop to it."

"Don't be a creep, Hiruzen," Horo said and I stifled my laughter. The Third Hokage's sweat dropped and left.

I faced the old man. "Okay, what do you have to offer?"

"I'm not offering you anything, brat. You need me."

"Oh really now? Tell me, why does that Hokage really want you to train me?"

Horo leaned against a tree and looked at me evenly. "Simple. You are special. I'm good with special people."

I sighed and sat cross-legged on the ground, resting my back against an opposite tree. "Why do I get this feeling you mean special as in dumb?"

"You think you're dumb?"

"I know I'm not."

"Then stop the complaining. Stand up."

I got to my feet with arguing. Arguing took much more energy than doing what he said. He came towards me, circling me.

"You are so skinny," he observed. "We need to fix that." He stopped in front of me and grabbed my face.

"What the-!"

"Shush!" He looked into my eyes. "Hmm, just as I suspected." He released me and I immediately rubbed my jaw. Boy, was his grip strong for an old man.

He walked away and broke a branch off a tree. "Run around the village," he told me. "Twice."

I raised a brow at him. He must be crazy if he thought I was doing that. I crossed my arms and looked at him evenly.

He looked back down at me, his small beady eyes staring into my soul. I gulped. I wasn't about to let him win.

"You know you're going to end up doing it," he told me. I frowned slightly at him.

"What makes you say that?"

"What do you think's going to happen when I report back to Hiruzen saying you refused to do what I told you?" I had absolutely no idea what would happen. But I knew I didn't want to find out.

I groaned and sighed at the same time. I started off, jogging lightly on my feet. I could feel his smirk burning into my back as I ran off.

//

The two laps around the village was the most tiring thing I ever had to do. I could barely make it back and I was halfway through the last lap. Thankfully, I met up on the one person who would ever do something like this. Lee.

With him around it wasn't so hard. I had some company, that's all that mattered. And surprisingly, he wasn't as weird as I first thought he was. Although the word 'youth' would come out of his mouth ever other sentence.

I stopped, cramped, sweating and panting. "I can't go on," I wheezed, resting my tired butt on a nearby rock.

Lee stopped beside me. He was still jogging, looking fit and fine. "C'mon Lea, you can do it! It's just a little more."

I waved him, desperately gasping for breath. "If I go any further, I'll die. And I mean that literally."

Lea stopped jogging. Before he could reply, someone else's voice sounded from behind us.

"Impressive. You made it much farther than I had originally expected." I turned around to see Horo smirking at me. I tried coming up with a snide remark but I was just too damn tired.

Lee held his hand up to his forehead, saluting the old man.

"Job well done, Lee," Horo said. I looked back and forth between them. What was going on here?

"Happy to help, sir! And I'm off! See ya, Lea-chan!" He sped off down the road.

I faced Horo. "What do you mean 'Job well done'?"

Horo shrugged. "I asked Lee to make sure you didn't slack off and that you were actually doing what I asked."

I threw my hands up in frustration. "Am I the only one who doesn't know anything around here?"

"Apparently, you are. Now let's go."

"Where are we going?"

"Just follow me. It's a surprise." He grinned at me and I frowned. Why do I get this feeling I won't like the surprise?