What to say, what to say, what to say. Firstly. I am SO sorry! Its just a lot of things have been happening and I could list it all but that wouldn't help! … On lighter news xD I put up another story the other day, called sightless, check it out. And after this chapter, I should be kicking off "book 0:??" , and if you STILL don't know about that, check out my profile. Hmm, anyway… An oath, if you will, 2k+ every weekend, I swear it.

BOOK 1: The Chuunin Exams.

Chapter 16 I'm late because I'm a real bitch and when this story is DONE, THEN I'll go kill myself for you guys. xD.

So, despite Asta's humorous start to the morning, the day was sure to get better, right? It was sunny, the birds were singing, and just about everything was perfect. That is to say, until Tazuna discovered just how strong Asta and Kakashi really were…

"Oi, you two, hurry up, I need those steal and wooden beams at the end of the bridge in the next 5 minutes! M.I.N.U.T.E.S!" He said, ticking off something on his clipboard, as Asta, carrying several steal beams, and Kakashi, carrying twice as many wooden beams walked past him. The 2 genin were following behind them, Sasuke's thoughts nowhere near his body and Sakura's mouth running a mile a minute.

"Can he be any MORE bossy?" Asta asked Kakashi, trying to block out the drone of Sakura's voice.

"He shouldn't be, I mean, we're only supposed to be guarding him." Kakashi said, and with a groan, dropped the wooden beams with a loud clatter. "And, we are getting underpaid, I mean. He really doesn't have a right to do this."

"Exactly!" Asta said, and much more gracefully but her beams down. However, despite how lovely the day had started, there really wasn't anything they could do as a thick fog rolled over the area. But her head did snap back in the direction of the house with a concerned look in her eyes. "Kakashi… Something's wrong."

The two genin had come to stand between the older shinobi, Sakura was worried and Sasuke didn't like what was happening, Asta reached over and grabbed Tazuna's arm, pulling him in the middle too. "And not just here, someone tripped the wires near Tazuna's house, and I specifically showed Inari and Tsunami where they were and told them NOT to trip them in case something happened."

Kakashi was glancing around the mist, looking for any chakra signature. "Go. We'll take care of stuff here." Asta looked at him before nodding shortly.

"I'll be back in a flash." She disappeared, but shortly afterwards the fog reverberated the sound of maniacal laughter as Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke armed themselves against the unseen enemy.

Asta arrived at the scene within minutes to find a broken wall. She also heard a scream tear itself through the air and jumped to the edge of the damaged wall, peeking through. "Mom!!" That was Inari, but she couldn't see him from her position. She did see, however, two buff ninjas, a broken table, and Tsunami cowering in the corner.

"Don't come in Inari! Run away!" She shouted. The two men looked at each other, one went to draw his sword and Inari stepped back when Tsunami shouted again, drawing their attention. "Wait! If you touch that child, I will bite my tongue and kill myself. You want a hostage, right?"

"Hehe…" The one on the shorter side, with long hair and clown marks under his eyes spoke. "Thank your mom kid. We won't hurt you… At least not yet."

"Awh, I wanted to cut something." The other, shirtless one said. He was the one who'd tried to draw his sword.

"Give it a rest." The first said. "You just cut up a bunch of stuff." He grabbed Tsunami roughly, ignoring her small shriek, and shoved her at the other man, who swooped her up onto his shoulder. They both began to walk to the exit, right next to asta, and she could hear Little Inari breaking down in his spot.

She was just about to move, they about to step out and lead Tsunami away when the crying stopped. "Get…" It was said weakly, but the next phrase was a shout. "Get away from my mom!" Footsteps were heard and she cursed. "Don't! Stupid, you're using a level limit! You mightn't be a match for them!" Naruto yelled, but she ignored him.

She jumped forward through the whole and the clownish one stumbled away from her, whipping up his sword and nipping her on the side. With a wince, she grabbed Tsunami from the buff, frozen man and Inari off the floor and darted to the farthest wall. She leaned them against it and spun with two kunai in hand.

"Woohoohoo…" The clown one spoke and her gaze whipped to him as he chuckled. "What do we have here?"

She shuffled slightly on her feet and glared between the two men. Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid! She reprimanded herself. A level limiter, I'm at a quarter of my full strength! I'm so stupid! I honestly did not think he would be attacking again this quick! And it doesn't help that last night was a new moon.

The buff one took a step forward and she jumped. Shit! Calm down! She breathed deeply. The man smirked. "I dunno, but she's kinda jumpy. She's kinda cute as well."

She shuffled on her feet again as her kunai glinted in the light form the window. She disappeared. Mr buff looked around in a flurry while Mr clown sharply brought up his sword, stopping her blow. She piffed the other kunai at his stomach and as he jumped back, she jumped sideways, away from mr Buff's sword.

SPLASH! Kakashi was hurtled across the puddles that now littered the bridge, only just managing to get his footing in time to dodge a downwards sweep from Zabuza's sword. He risked a quick glance at the house of Mirrors, shocked to see a wounded Sasuke, but instantly brought back from his musings when a figure charged him…

When Asta finally emerged form the house, she not only sported the still weeping wound on her ribs, but a gash diagonally across her thigh, not very deep, and a small wound on her shoulder. The assassins were bound and Tsunami assured her that if they awoke, they would feal the blunt end of 

her frying pan. She ran, as fast as her wound allowed her, to the bridged, for this was proof, if other things weren't, that they were under attack.

She was there in time to see Sasuke fall to a deadly barrage of needles. She quickly darted to his side, catching him as he fell. "Sasuke? Oi! Don't die now Uchiha, What about killing your brother?" It hurt. It hurt, surprisingly, a lot, when he fell.

She laid him down. Dead or Alive, He wouldn't live if the threat was still here. She looked into one of the mirrors and came face to face with the hunter. She smirked lowly. Sasuke stirred and she knew he was living, for now, and she grabbed some of the needles strewn about. The image of the hunter flickered and danced over all the mirrors surrounding her, and she knew this wasn't to be easy.

This one doesn't meet the 2k limit though P. GO, LOOK NOW! I shall finally make book 0! RAWR! It will be updated maybe once every second week.

Enna Rose xD