The two of them are mostly silent as the Hokage explains the mission in further detail, leaving out the bit about you being from another world and why Orochimaru might be interested in you. It's not long before you have to say goodbye to Kakashi and you're walking around the village behind the two of them. "So... which one of you is Izumo and which one is Kotetsu?" You ask them, they look over their shoulders at you with similar expressions. The one with spiked hair spoke up first.

"I'm Kotetsu, he's Izumo." He gestures to the other one, who waves at you a little bit awkwardly.

"Oh, nice to meet you two."

"It's nice to meet you too Sakura." Izumo responds, they drop back a bit so they aren't too far ahead of you.

"So what are we going to do for the next, what? Four hours?"

"Try three or four days," Kotetsu responds. He looks like he wants to say something but decides to bite his cheek instead, looking away with a small shake of his head.

"What would you like to do?" Izumo asks, it's obvious you've interrupted some plans. You don't say anything about that though, instead thinking about his question.

"Let's enter the chunnin exams!"

"We're already chunnin Sakura...." Kotetsu points out, "plus the exams already started...."

"Fair enough, we could crash the chunnin exams anyways though." You said with a shrug, not meaning anything you were actually saying.

"We could do that," Kotetsu agreed. You both turn to look at Izumo, Kotetsu went as far as to use puppy eyes on him. He didn't even have a chance to argue with you two before he broke.

"Fine, but don't interfere with the contestants and no pranks." He pointed at you for the last one, as though that was something you'd do. You turn to Kotetsu and hold your hand up, he high-fives it with a victorious grin.

"Yay, let's go." They take the lead and you follow them, how they were planning on crashing the chunnin exams was beyond you.

"How are you planning on crashing the chunnin exams by the way?" Izumo looked directly at you, Kotetsu snapped his fingers and pointed at his best friend as a sign of agreement.

"That's a really smart question, I didn't even think about that!" Kotetsu dropped back a step and threw an arm around your shoulders. "Good thing you have a plan."

"Uhh.... right, a plan. I have one of those, a really good one. Believe me, no one does plans better than the great Sakura!"

"Well, what is it?" Izumo pushed to know, you rushed to think of one and you found yourself just saying words.

"We walk right in, it's the last thing they'll expect so they'll never see it coming!"

"That's...." They both start to say at the same time, you were fully prepared for the criticism.

"Dumb-" Izumo started to say before Kotetsu drowned him out.

"Genius! This kid really knows how to make a plan," the excited man rambled for a moment as he completely supported your plan.

"There are so holes in that plan, so many ways that can go wrong." Izumo argued, you spoke up in your own defense.

"Of course there are holes, it lets the air in so we don't suffocate." You say, though Izumo's expression doesn't change you do feel yourself being pulled closer to your other babysitter. The noise he makes is similar to the noise you make when you spot a cute animal outside or something.

"Can we keep her? She's so smart!"

"How?"

"Yeah, how?" You repeat Izumo's question, only more confused.

"I don't know, but it makes sense." He shrugs, releasing you from the side hug.

"Whatever, if someone tries to stop us then you'll have to deal with them." He says, giving a pointed look to you before signaling for the two of you to follow him again. You didn't take too long to get to the tower of the forest of death, however, it felt like years due to the lack of conversation.

"Are we in yet?" You whisper at the two of them as they lead you through a hall.

"In what? Are you supposed to be here?" A tall guy with red marks on his face moves to stop the three of you, a white cloth covers half his face and his headband had a marking similar to an hourglass on it.

"That's Baki." Sakura's voice almost makes you jump but you keep your feet on the ground, allowing Izumo to push you forward to do the talking. Apparently, he wasn't joking when he said you'd have to deal with everyone.

'What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be awake in my world right now?' You think, meeting Baki's impatient stare.

"I'll explain in a moment, this guy is from the sand. He's the sensei of Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro. Think of something, quick."

"Baki?" You ask him, he gives a short nod. "I'm glad to have finally found you, I heard you were going to be here and I just had to meet you." He doesn't say anything, which works for you. "You don't remember me?" He shakes his head, his eyes narrowing in suspicion and you take it up a bit. "You're my godfather, you really don't remember me?" He seems hesitant to deny it after hearing a small tremor in your voice. "I still have the stuffed dog you gave me when I was really little, I can't believe you forgot...." You force a couple tears to appear for a convincing performance.

"Oh, I remember you. You've gotten so big...." He says awkwardly, going along with your lie. "I'm busy now but I will see you around.... Haruno-san." You can hear him muttering to himself as he walks away, you wipe the convincing tears from your eyes and your two babysitters stare at you in slight awe.

"I didn't know your godfather was here." Kotetsu said, Baki disappears around a corner and you roll your eyes at him.

"That was rather impressive." You grin at his praise, turning to walk down the hall again and talk to Sakura.

'So now that that's over...."

"Right, I'm sleeping in the car. I'm going to the zoo with (F/n) and their family."

'No fair...' You would love to go to the zoo right now.

"If you go to sleep early then maybe we can go together?"

'I'd like that but I'm not sure when I'll get to bed or even if I'll make it over there.' You feel a little down, sometimes it would be nice to take a break from all things ninja and go see a bunch of animals.

"I still hope to see you there," she tells you hopefully. Her image flickers lightly every once in awhile, you assume it's because she's sleeping in a car. "I can hear them talking, we're going to be stopping for food soon."

'I'll see if I can get to sleep early,' you promise. She smiles happily, you don't really get to spend a lot of time with her now that you think about it. Most of the time you do spend with her is focused on ninja stuff, which you're sure she's bored of. She disappears soon after and you've found that the tower is mostly empty, few of the genin have come in yet anyway.

"I'm kinda tired," you tell Izumo and Kotetsu.

"Well, let's find a place to stay for the next few days then." Izumo excuses himself for a moment, going over to talk to a jonin that was walking nearby. He talks to him for a couple minutes before the jonin hands him a piece of paper, pointing down a hall. Izumo nods, waving in a grateful way before coming back to the two of you. "He says we can stay in the same area as the genin, since most of them won't be making it to the tower anyway." He leads the way down the hall that he was directed to, finding the rooms almost immediately.

"Dibbed!" Kotetsu says, running into the first door he found. Izumo shakes his head at his best friend, leading you to a room of your own.

"If you need anything, just.... scream I guess." You nod in understanding and he closes the door, leaving you with nothing else to do but sleep. You make your way over to the bed and try to get some sleep, after about a half hour of tossing and turning you decide to give up and walk around some more. You quickly find yourself lost, wandering the halls looking for anyone who might be around. You soon hear a familiar voice from around a corner.

"Just be careful of your surroundings, you're not the only one here you know." He was talking to three kids, they had the same headband as him. They all looked at you once you round the corner.

"Baki!" You call cheerfully, hugging your newly adopted godfather. He awkwardly pats you on the head as his team just stares in confusion.

"Who are you?" The one with a black cat like hood and purple lines painted on his face demanded to know, he crossed his arms in a manner that you assume was supposed to be intimidating.

"Sakura Haruno, who are you guys?"

"Temari," the only girl spoke up. She looked older than Sakura and she had some sort of weapon, you're assuming, strapped to her back. "These are my brothers, Kankuro and Gaara." She gestures to each of them as she introduces them. You wave at the two boys.

"Nice to meet you, how do you guys know Baki?"

"He's our sensei, how do you know him?" Kankuro growls back at you, you choose to ignore his tone.

"Baki is my godfather, it's such a small world isn't it?" The three of them don't seem to hear your last part, they're too busy staring at their sensei.

"You're this brat's godfather?" Kankuro asks, he looks back at you for a second. "Really?" Baki decides not to answer, instead he turns to you.

"Haruno-san-"

"Sakura's fine."

"Sakura.... is there something you need?"

"Hmm.... directions would be nice, I'm a bit lost."

"Directions to where?"

"My room."

"Where is that?"

"No idea, I'm very lost." You tell him, you don't remember if there are numbers on the rooms or which floor you were on. You don't know where to go from anywhere really. Baki sighs, glancing at his team.

"Please help Sakura find her way back to her room, I have something very important business to do." He speed walks away before any of them can answer.

"I'm beginning to think he doesn't want to spend time with me." You pout a bit before turning to your guides with a smile. Temari sighs, the other two clearly weren't going to help you find your way back.

"What can you tell us about your room?"

"It was in a hallway, my bodyguards are staying nearby, and.... that's it."

"You have bodyguards?" Gaara asked, suddenly intrigued.

"Sort of, they like to call themselves babysitters but their job is to protect me so...." You trail off with a small shrug.

"What's so important about you?" The redhead pushed farther, you were starting to intrigue him.

"Absolutely nothing. I'm perfectly normal, especially compared to Ducky and Fishy."

"Who?" Kankuro asked, frowning at the nicknames.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki."

"Oh, those brats?"

"You've met them?" You can't think of a time this would have happened, except maybe yesterday?

"Yeah, the blonde brat's friend ran into me. Didn't even apologize," he muttered as he kicked at the ground.

"I'm sorry about that, if I was there I could have made them apologize but I made the choice to not be there."

"I can understand why you wouldn't want to." You smile a little at the small bonding moment you had with this random genin.

"They're not all that bad, they just don't do well with strangers. Our first mission Naruto tried to attack the person we were protecting." You laugh with Kankuro for a bit, starting to share short stories about your teammates and their foolish actions. Both Temari and Gaara spoke up almost immediately, interrupting your conversation.

"Why don't you take her back to her room now Gaara?" Temari says, pulling Kankuro away from you.

"Wait, I was talking to her!" He objected but she didn't let him go and they soon disappear. Looking at Gaara makes it obvious that he doesn't want to do this.

"It's okay if you don't want to, I'll just wander around until one of my bodyguards find me." You say, giving a small wave before you turn to walk in a random direction. You hear footsteps behind you as he's decided to follow you anyways.

"I'll take you there," he mutters. It's complete silence for most of the walk, you can't stand it.

"What's that on your back?" You noticed the large gourd on his back from the beginning but thought it'd be rude to ask.

"It's a gourd. Filled with sand."

"Why?"

"Sand is my weapon."

"How do you use sand as a weapon? Do you throw it in people's eyes?" You were thoroughly confused with this boy. He doesn't say anything but when he holds up his hand a small ball of sand floats above it. It turns into other shapes and moves around his wrist. "First of all, that's really cool. You must make the best sand castles. Secondly, I think we're here."

"Goodbye," he turns to walk away. You almost wish he had stayed longer but you decided it'd be better to get some sleep anyway.

"Bye Gaara," you wave at his back even if he can't see. You enter the room, flopping down on the bed and falling asleep almost immediately. You open your eyes inches away from the face of a giraffe, it's long tongue was wrapped around a piece of lettuce that Sakura was feeding it. "Sakura!" You yell happily, you regret doing that when she just about jumps out of her skin.

"Are you okay (Y/n)? Did something scare you?" (F/n) asked, Sakura laughed a bit and waved it off.

"A fly flew by my face and scared the crap out of me." Your friend accepted the excuse and turned back to feed the giraffe as Sakura wandered away a bit.

'Glad that you could join me (Y/n).'

"Me too, how long have you been here?"

'A half hour? We haven't seen a lot of animals, your friend mostly wanted to go on the rides.'

"Sounds like her. Which animals have you seen so far?"

"Ducks, seals, giraffes, and monkeys. Lots of monkeys."

"Oh, monkeys." Sakura can't tell if you like them or not and she doesn't ask, you float along beside her all day and she just enjoys your company as you talk about everything that's happened. She gave a brief description of what to expect over the next few days and she told you everything she knew about Gaara and his siblings. You can feel yourself getting ready to wake up.

"I'm probably going to have to go soon." You tell her as she climbs into the car.

'I'll see you later, thank you for being here.... I just wish-' Whatever Sakura was saying was cut off by you waking up in her world, leaving her alone over there for who knows how long.