From the Ashes

"𝑻𝒊𝒔' 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉!"

"-p,Kaguya-sama..."

If she remained quiet,maybe he'd move on.

"Ne...Master Saryn,you're burning up again." The girl in question only squeezed her eyes closed tighter in light of tapping her awake,hoping that the boy would leave her to her current hot flash before she'd been throughly baptized.

"By the Sage—!"

The ivory haired Kaguya opened her eyes in fright, gasping for air as Haku stood there with a small ball of water dancing atop his pointer finger,an evil smile on his face.She also noticed the bandages around the lower part of his slashed turtleneck, his headband now tied around his waist to secure the remains of his haori over his exposed abdomen, much like hers did for her long sleeve.

Before she could accuse him of waterboarding her , he had leaned closer, "I'll leave so you can get dressed...But I thought I would make a request before we headed to the next phase of our exam," he bent down to stick a navy-colored nail into the visage of Saryn .

"No more self sacrificing.Fu and myself are going everywhere you go.Let me handle the sacrificing."

"You've never asked—"

"-this time,I will."Then he was gone.Honestly,did he really think her the type?

"...the pot calling the kettle black." she shook her head,tossing the cloth atop her bandaged forehead away,red Kaguya markings furrowing in amusement.

Saryn hurried to straighten herself and find the rest of her team,but it seemed external forces had other plans.

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Hiruzen sat in a smaller room in the exam building,just outside of where the chunin hopefuls would be participating in an imitation of warfare between villages.

The old leader had an interesting twenty-four hours as of late,seeing his old student return to shake things up was a concerning sight to say the least.Even with the teams of ANBU he'd sent into the forest,Anko had been the only one to find him,catching wind of him a while after the cameras had been sabotaged.

Of course she was no match for the man,much less in her blind fury but she had been merely a speck in the snake's mind at the time...His concern lied not on his student,but what his student was interested in...Or who more specifically.

And like clockwork,the woman of the hour arrived,knocking on the door."Ah,just the person I was hoping to see." The wizened man smiled at the girl and her escort,keen eyes sweeping over her for any traces of the Sannin's 'influence'.

Yes,he'd been advised of Sasuke Uchiha's...affliction from Kakashi and Iruka,whom Anko reported spotting the boy along with the later shocking discovery of a mark also on Saryn almost a day after.He would see for himself how they each responded to the seal before he went to next steps,at the behest of his only loyal student.

Saryn inclined her head,entering as the masked man closed the door behind her. "Sir." The Kaguya seemed better,progress from the burning,shouting mess she'd been just hours prior.

"I've been,reflecting on what we spoke about the other day." She nodded to the kage,recalling the conversation herself.

"Has anything...changed?"

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(Flashback...)

"You have to sit straight up,Kaguya-san...We're about to set your shoulder back into place" One of the ANBU medics had her in a hold as two others dealt with the wind cuts on her abdomen.