thanks to everyone who reviewed! keep pressing that purple button! it makes me really happy to read them. -

Anna was not amused. Of course, most things failed to amuse her, but this was just ridiculous. Who the hell holds an exam in the middle of nowhere? Granted, she had rather accurate information that had foretold this event, but that did not make it any more bearable. Honestly, what kind of a Chuunin exam was a battle royale? In the middle of nothing but sand? This was nothing compared to what she had faced under Kino's tutelage and what the twins had faced in hell, but it was still grunt work. Anna no Itako did not do grunt work, her...associates (she could not be bothered with the paperwork that comes with slavery) did grunt work.

"Yoh, I said finish the fort BEFORE lunch, and I am starting to get hungry. Hao, I want lunch. NOW."

Yes, she truly hated grunt work. But someone had to do it. Damn, giving all those orders was getting her thirsty. She doubted that she was going to like the Sand very much. She took a sip at the drink in her hands...damn, it was starting to warm. She sloshed it a bit, allowing the melting chips of ice to clink against each other. Hao hurried over with fresh chips, which he had gotten from the slab of ice he had frozen from the underground river.

Anna looked down at what Yoh had built. She saw nothing - she nodded, it would have to do. The two descended into the darkness of the underground strong hold. Okay, not too bad, it will do. The walls seem sturdy enough, it didn't look like they would cave anytime soon. The roof, though only sand, was obviously fortified with chakra, and sealed with charms so that it would be undetected. Four rooms and a common area. Hmm. Hao hadn't been slacking either, the ice would stay ice, the water would be fresh, and the resulting gas from cooking would be sent back into the sand to keep their fort warm.

(For those who are confused...Yoh had in fact dug an under-ground four roomed dwelling for them. He had started with the kitchen, where Hao had started on lunch. Of course, while these two were working underground, Anna stayed above ground to work on a very elaborate illusion that also held traps that attacked the minds of those who entered - though the victims would only desert, it is not easy to maintain an illusion where sand was the sand specific to the area)

She looked at their lunch. It always baffled her that Hao always managed to make something relatively appetizing with whatever she found, in this case various roots and odd spiked green plants whose flesh was soft and spongy. It didn't taste too bad.

Between the three of them there weren't really any please or thank yous. That was alright, they knew better than to expect that from each other. They did their parts and would continue to do so. Besides, their lives had been in and out of so many odd situations that to stop and do so would be frivolous.

Yoh started to laugh. Anna looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. Hao shook his head and smirked. The younger of the twins took a breath and finally calmed down.

"We're seriously going to just let those guys up there duke it out until the last day?"

Hao raised an eyebrow. "What? Did you want to spend all week playing with them?"

"It just seems boring to stay down here." Yoh's eyes grew wide and shut his mouth, Hao glared venomously at his younger twin.

Anna smiled.

Somewhere screams of those caught in her illusion could be heard. Loudly.

Rekka could feel the energy of Suzaku fading from Sasuke. It was too soon. He could feel himself weakening. Damnit, he liked having Sasuke as a master. Power draped the Uchiha as divinity once draped monarchs in a time before the Fire Tamer had rebuilt the world from clay of blood and bones. Rekka did not want to be saddled with some brat who has never tasted of strength found only in survival.

He rested in a tree as the moon, a faint sliver in a sea of black, sang him a lullaby from long ago. So very long ago it had been when the world had been but one continent, before its seems had split and resewn into what it was today. The melody was so very nice...his tapered fingers longed to remove his mask.

So he did.

The melody was nice, but the light - the faint caress from moon beams - was much nicer. He could not hold back a hint of a smile as something dark glittered in his eyes. This night reminded him quite a bit of a night when he had first entered servitude to Sasuke. The Uchiha really had needed pain during those days to drive back memories of mutilated kin and blood the colour of spilling wine. Gods, that boy could take pain...and give it back ten fold.

Rekka still shuddered at the very thought.

Rekka had existed for a long time and had been partnered with many warriors, but Sasuke had been the only one so far to own Rekka. The game of domination seemed to have become the boy's life at that point...he had been so very desperate to control something that he had been all but feral.

The being of the eternal flame's shadow leaned back against the tree. Back arched as he bared his face to the moon up so high. Though Sasuke was a wielder of fire, he was a soul of the moon. Rekka would miss little Sasuke, but he would never forget the boy as long as the moon continued to exist.

Rekka sighed and drifted off to sleep, but not before he replaced his false face.

White eyes faded in their intensity, something akin to shock settling in. Usually, the mask that Suzaku's companion wore would hide a face that even the Hyuuga's treasured eyes could not find. But, Rekka had taken that mask off tonight and frankly Neji was...

Neji knew not if it was shock or...it was probably shock.

"Kakashi-san." silence, but he knew the elder was listening. "Rekka is Uchiha Sasuke."

"Are you certain?"

"He took off his mask."

"Was the Sharingan activated."

"No."

"You are certain that it is Uchiha Sasuke."

"Yes."

"Continue to observe him, then."

"Ka-"

"We are not certain that it is Uchiha Sasuke. If we act without certainty, this could start another front in the war."

"Understood."

Neji knew not why, but the image of Uchiha bathing in moonlight...

He will continue to observe the younger shinobi.

Sasuke poked at the red mask before him, fingers retreating quickly before they could become cinders. When he spoke, it was addressed to a rather distressed Obito.

"Looks like I'm not Suzaku anymore."

"How the hell are we going to explain this?"

"Easy. We don't."

"Switching delegates in the middle of a delegation, and saying it's the same person when its obvious that it's not, is not good for negotiations!"

"We don't need them."

"Sasuke!"

The addressed shinobi quirked an eyebrow. It was a good thing, he guessed, that they had remembered to put up barriers around their rooms. "The person behind the mask doesn't matter."

"Yes it does!"

"No. Kino's note specifically said that the delegate will be Suzaku. Suzaku is one of the four guardians. It is not a name, but a title. We cannot be at fault if they had misinterpreted."

"You're evil."

"I'm Uchiha."

"Exactly...how's Rekka taking all this?"

"He's still walking around with my face."

"Which the Hyuuga has seen and reported to your old sensei." Shisui remarked as he walked through the door.

Obito was no longer rather distressed. It was the panic he had seen in his boss whenever the baby feared a spanking. Sasuke watched with an easy amusement that the Leaf had not seen, ever. Finally, because he's the nice little distant cousin that he was, he threw a kunai with a fire-tag. The resulting flame seemed to calm Obito down. Really, there was something inherently fucked up with the Uchiha.

"Don't be a moron, Obito. They do not have hard evidence. Seeing a face means nothing, you know that."

"A face means nothing, sure. Especially with what Rekka's wearing. But, you're also hanging around with me."

Two pairs of ash black glared at Obito. Two voices resonated a grim flame. "What have you done now?"

"Nothing major, I swear."

Shisui sighed. "Let me take a wild guess. You were acting all over protective because of the brat's little bet, weren't you. Sasuke is an Uchiha, he can take care of himself you know."

"That's funny, brat, considering that the Uchiha were decimated in a matter of hours."

"A face doesn't matter, especially since Rekka will have to change his face when Suzaku arrives." Sasuke really didn't know whether he should laugh or scream.

The detective relaxed. "So who's the new recruit?"

"Recruits. Tao's Byakko. Faustus is Genbu. Onion Head's Seiryuu. Yukimura's Suzaku."

"Your village is doomed. I mean, it's already gonna be a dictatorship with Kyouyama in power. But now her vanguard's made up of a bunch of psychos?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Yukimura isn't that bad."

"Her slap is."

"She's also the only stable one of the four."

"That's not saying very much."

Shisui snickered. "Obito, I look forward to when you explain to the Kazekage and the Hyuuga why not only has Suzaku changed but also why he is now a she and twenty years old."

"ME?"

Sasuke nodded. "Sounds about fair."

"Now that you boys have got that figured out..." the voice of irritation came from a previously ignored young woman of brown hair and grey blue eyes.

There was a certainity in her steps as she came forward to claim the mask of the Vermilian Bird and somewhere beneath foreign sands a blond's black eyes became rimmed in red for a brief moment. The new guardian of the South's eyes found the former guardian's and the voice held a certain regret.

"The Kage has a message for you, Sasuke. Until this issue with the Sound and Orochimaru is over with, you are on loan to the Reikai."

"Like I didn't see that coming." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

Obito and Shisui exchanged a look.