Her Destiny

Konoha

The lead up to the chunin exams went by without too many hitches.

They had all gotten a bit of a nasty surprise when Mei Terumi, the new Mizukage, had just appeared outside the gates with the team they had sent to request a meeting.

They hadn't been expecting her to make such a sudden appearance.

Ao was a prick. They guy had the balls to treat Neji and Hinata like possible bounties. Mei had shut it down fairly quickly, but not before Itachi had caught wind of what the prickly Mist nin had said. Itachi had threatened to kill him in some very creative ways and leave no evidence that the Mist nin had ever existed. It had been a crash course in what not to say around Hinata's soulmate. The two had been going slowly. They had been asked who their soulmates were when Itachi had arrived.

Hinata had said that she never looked at hers, thinking she wasn't good enough to have a soulmate, while Itachi gave much the same reasoning. Imagine their surprise when the group took each aside to look at the soul marks only to find that the two were soulmates.

Shika and Neji had threatened Itachi, telling him that if he ever hurt their sister, he'd pay for it.

Anyway, Ao had ceased being a problem, and they found out that the unease that Sakura had been feeling was well founded. It seemed that there had been a bit of an uprising in Mist, a lot of people unhappy about the new Kage and what she was doing. She had taken Ao and Choujuro on because of the constant threat.

Oto, Suna, and Ame had offered help, and Mei had accepted it, offering an alliance in return, ensuring the safety of their ninja when in Mist, and even offering to leave Choujuro as another kenjutsu master.

They had let her keep Choujuro, asking instead that she take the kill order from Kisame's name. She had agreed.

Now, sitting in a large council room in Ame, giddy genin looking around in excitement, Sakura wondered if this was going to cause a riot.

She had a feeling that things were not going to go well.

Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro had just arrived, Gaara grumbling about the rain weighing down his sand. The sand genin rushed to their Kage, wanting to tell him all that they had learned. Sakura grinned, catching Temari's eye and finding the other woman grinning as well.

Gaara was surprisingly good with kids.

Not too long after, Yahiko, Nagato, Konan, and Zetsu came back after going to make sure things were in order for the time they would be gone.

With a nod, the village leaders gathered in front of the genin and had Obito open a portal to Fire Country. He had created one a fair way from Konoha, giving the genin the opportunity to take in the lands as well as not to alarm those in Konoha with their sudden appearance.

As they walked, Sakura could feel eyes watching them. She felt, more than saw, as an ANBU ran off ahead of them, no doubt to alert the Hokage of the large contingent that was heading toward their village.

By the time they were within sight of the gates, word had obviously spread, because there was a large number of people waiting for them.

Kakashi stood at the front, resplendent in his Hokage robes, with Tsunade and Shizune not too far behind them. A large number of ANBU gathered around the three, protecting them against anything that may come.

In turn, several of the former Akatsuki members, having taken up ANBU in their spare time to get their thrills, encircled the Kages that they were with. Deidara, Kisame, Hidan, and Sai spread out among the ranks, with Minato, Tobi, Hashirama, Obito, Shisui, Itachi, and Sasori also fanned out, shielding the genin along with the Suna and Ame senseis pitching in to help.

The more notable among them, particularly the previous Hokages and the Akatsuki members, had a strong Uchiha genjutsu cast over them, hiding their identities. All they needed was to freak out the general population of Konoha with the large group of high level shinobi showing up at their gates.

Upon reaching the gate, formal greetings were exchanged, several people in the Konoha group casting looks toward Sakura, whose hat and robes shielded her identity.

The Ame group got another appraising look, many unsure what a Kage only in name would be doing here with such a large group of genin.

Why that wouldn't cross their minds with the Sound contingent was beyond Sakura's reasoning.

Kakashi offered for several genin teams to show the visiting genin around, leaving only the adults. The Suna and Ame senseis split off too, leaving the Kages and their groups.

Kakashi lead the way to the Hokage tower, leading all of them through Konoha.

Nothing much had changed since Sakura and the others had left, at least not physically. There was a strange feel about the village now, as if something wasn't quite right. It set everyone on edge.

When they were safely ensconced within Kakashi's office, he turned to them, face serious.

"Drop the genjutsu. Now."