"Tatsu! Tatsu! Wake up, I know you're not on the Genjutsu. So get up," says Shino shaking Tatsu rapidly.
Tatsu slowly opens her eyes and then sits up in her bed.
"Where am I?" asked Tatsu.
"The recovering room in the Chunin Exam stadium, but we need to get moving," says Shino.
"Why?" asked Tatsu, "What about the Exams?"
"*sigh* The Exams are done," says Shino.
"What!?"
"The Sand and Sound Villages are attacking the Leaf. Kankuro and Temari took Gaara away to recover from his fight with Sasuke. Sasuke went after them and Sakura, Naruto, and Shikamaru went after him. We should be doing the same."
"Why? If Naruto and Shikamaru are going why do we need to?"
"Because Kankuro owes me a fight," said Shino, "And there's something strange about Gaara."
"What do you mean?" asked Tatsu.
"He was emitting a strange chakra is all, but I know that I can't handle him alone. Even if I had Sasuke, Naruto, and Shikamaru on my side. You might be one of the few people who has a shot at beating him."
"Gaara," Tatsu thought reminding herself of the first time she saw him, then what he did to Lee in the Preliminaries, "I...I can't face him...at least not now, but Shino needs me right now."
"Tatsu," said Shino snapping Tatsu out of her train of thought, "We need to leave now."
"Ok."
The two of them make their way out of the room. As soon as they open the door, a kunai knife unintentionally strikes above their heads. Tatsu looks around to find most of the spectators asleep and many Jonin fighting against Sound and Sand village ninja.
"Tatsu," said Shino, "We don't have time to watch, lets go."
"Wait!" says Tatsu, "What about Kiba and Hinata? Where are they?"
"I don't know," said Shino, "Probably asleep from the Genjutsu."
"Then I'm going to find them," said Tatsu as she was about to take off, but Shino grabbed her arm.
"Tatsu, right now Gaara is the priority."
"As far as I can tell our teammates are the priority. Once I find Kiba and Hinata I will come and find you, but until then our teammates come first," said Tatsu pulling herself away from shino and darted across the specters.
"Kiba, Hinata, Where are you?" asked Tatsu in her head dodging kunais as she searched.
Suddenly she whisked by a familiar shape on the ground, Akamaru! Tatsu quickly turns around and sees Akamaru lying next to Kiba, both unconscious. Tatsu kneels down next to Kiba to avoid getting hit by any flying kunais and picks up Akamaru and places him in her lap.
"Akamaru and Kiba are both knocked out, but it doesn't look like Genjutsu," thought Tatsu.
"Kiba. Kiba!" said Tatsu shaking Kiba trying to get him to awake, "Kiba, you fool! Wake up!"
Suddenly Kiba starts to move and slowly opens his eyes, "Tatsu?"
"Kiba, are you alright?"
"I think so. Ugh!" said Kiba clutching his stomach, "That ANBU Black OPs guy knocked me out after healing Hinata."
"An ANBU Black OPs ninja did this to you?"
"Yeah, Akamaru said he was with us during the Preliminary Rounds, then the guy knocked me out. Wait, where's Akamaru?"
"Right here," said Tatsu handing Akamaru to him, "Where's Hinata?"
"She's recovering in one of the rooms. Why?"
"I'll explain on the way, but what I can tell you right now is that we are being attacked by the Sand and Sound Villages."
"What!?" screamed Kiba catching the attention of a close by Sound ninja.
"Ah crud," cursed Tatsu.
The Sound ninja then threw a kunai at them, Tatsu quickly grabbed one of her own and deflected it. The ninja darted for them, then Tatsu started to make her hand signs.
"Fire Style: Fire Breath Jutsu," yelled Tatsu as she released the flames.
The flames knocked the Sound ninja out of the specter stands.
"Tatsu!" screamed Kiba.
Tatsu turned around, then heard a piercing scream.
"AHHHHHH!" yelled Tatsu and Kiba until the sound stopped.
"Had enough?" said a voice.
Tatsu sees the girl from the Preliminaries who Itami beat, Sairen. Sairen, had blond hair and silver eyes. She had on a short sleeved gray shirt with long black pants. Her arms had long fishnet gloves and on her waist was a sound village logo bandana. Sairen's headband was hanging from her neck like Hinata's.
"Oh brother, not another one," said Tatsu, "Look, do I need to humiliate you too?"
"What!?" screamed Sairen letting out another piercing scream.
After covering her ears from the scream Tatsu continued, "You saw me beat Dageki and Itami didn't you? So you know how this will end."
"Hehe," Sairen laughed, "You think just because you beat my teammates you can beat me. I know all your moves and your special ability may allow make you invulnerable to physical attacks, but not my scream."
Then Sairen lets out another scream making Kiba and Tatsu fall to the floor.
"I gotta defeat her and fast, before she kills us," thought Tatsu, "I don't have enough chakra for my Fire Breath Jutsu and the Muteki Jinshin doesn't work when I'm passed out. So I have to use it. If I don't we'll die."
Sairen stops her scream and laughs.
Tatsu crawls over to Kiba and whispers, "Close your eyes and don't open them until I say so."
"Tatsu, you're not thinking about using that jutsu are you?" asked Kiba, "Kurenai sensei said.."
"I know what she said," said Tatsu, "But if I don't use it now we're dead."
"Looks like you're still conscious," sneered Sairen, "Guess I'll have to hit you with my special scream once more."
"Fat chance," said Tatsu, "It's my turn to make a move."
Tatsu makes hand signs that were different than the Fire Breath Jutsu. Then she covered her left eye with her hand and slowly moves it to the right eye.
"Ninja Art: Lizard Eye Jutsu!" yelled Tatsu.
When her hand left her eye it was covered in green scales. Tatsu slowly opened her eye, and instead of her normal hazel color, it was yellow. Sairen looked straight at the eye and the next thing she knows, she is transported to a black abyss.
"What?" panicked Sairen, "Where am I? What is this place?"
"Your worst nightmare," said Tatsu as her voice echoed through the area, "It is here where you will die."
"You think I'm afraid of you!?" yelled Sairen, but her voice wasn't piercing as it was before.
"Your abilities will not work in here, not unless I allow it," said Tatsu, "And I'm fully aware that you do not fear me, but I never said I was going to kill you."
Suddenly a man appeared in the abyss with Sairen, a man that she knew too well. He was a tall man with extremely pale skin and waist-length black hair. He had a long face with pronounced cheekbones, amber eyes with slits in his pupils and purple markings around his eyes. He wears plain grey garbs with black pants and a thick purple rope belt tied in a large knot behind his back and blue tomoe-shaped earrings.
"No...Not him!" trembled Sairen, "Anyone, but him!"
"I told you before didn't I?" said Tatsu, "This is your worst nightmare."
Sairen ran away from the man screaming, "NO! Please don't kill me Lord Orochimaru! Please!"
Then Orochimaru appeared in front of her, smiling and pulled out a kunai.
"NOOO!" screamed Sairen as he stabbed her in the chest again and again.
Back in the arena, Sairen collapsed to the floor, unconscious. Tatsu moved her hand back over to her left eye, then removes it making it normal again.
"Ok Kiba it's done," said Tatsu, but no one responded, "Kiba?"
Tatsu looked around and Kiba was nowhere to be seen. Also the fighting among the jonin and enemy ninja had stopped as well. Tatsu rushed to the stairs and collided with Kiba and Akamaru knocking them both to the floor.
"Ow!" yelled Kiba, "So I guess you're done."
"Kiba! Where did you go? What happened?" asked Tatsu.
"Well, while you were using the Lizard Eye Jutsu, some enemy ninja came up from behind. Akamaru and I did our best to take care of them, then Kurenai sensei came and took care of the rest. Then I realized our fight took us away from you so I was on my way to see if you were ok. Oh and the enemy ninja have retreated we won," explained Kiba, but Tatsu could tell something else was bothering him.
"Kiba, what's wrong?"
"We lost many ninja in this fight," said Kiba, "including the Hokage."
Tatsu froze, "The Hokage dead."
Once everyone recovered from the battle, it was time to honor the fallen shinobi. Everyone met at the roof of the Hokage mansion and in front of them were pictures of all the ninja that had died. Seeing these faces of the fallen gave Tatsu a mix of sadness and anger.
"Why? Why do more people have to die when I'm around? I don't want to see anymore dead faces," thought Tatsu.
Then one by one the shinobi brought their flower to the Hokage's picture. When Tatsu placed down her flower, the memories of the Third Hokage appeared in her mind. He had accepted her into the village as a citizen when they found her strained in the forest. He even took care of her finances and gave her a home. They may not be a lot of memories, but they matter enough to Tatsu.
"I swear," vowed Tatsu to herself, "I won't let anyone else I know die as long as I can help it!"